Wheeldale Moor

One of my favourite places is on  Wheeldale Moor.  There's everything from bronze ages tumuli, through to WWII archeology and later.  Here's an example:-

Walk up Rutmoor beck and around 780963 you'll see this.  It doesn't appear to have been a building and I'm not quite sure it was an enclosure either. 

A couple of hundred meters SW of Wheeldale Howe stands the 'Blue-man-i-the-Moss', probably a bronze age stone and standing on the Rydale/Eskdale boundary.
There's an old letter 'E' carved in it, probably for 'Egton' and a rather modern blue man painted on it. At the base is a modern memorial to someone.

And a couple of hundred meters SE of Wheeldale How lay the remains of a 'green goddess', an old army fire tender, burnt out in the severe fires of 1976. (767990) Over the years the ravages of scrap hunters, the elements and souvenir hunters have all but reduced this from the much large lorry it once was.  

Neptune?

Down at Ravenscar quite well hidden near the fault line lies this carved rock.  Its not particularly obvious and is quite large.  Its laid flat on the rocks and is far too heavy to stand up without using a lever of some sort.

From personal experience I'd guess that to do this carving would take a good few hours.  

Someone took a lot of time and effort to do this but I've never  been able to find out anything about it.

Any one know?

And here not far from the previous picture I came across another neptune, clearly by the same hand and yet again hidden away, in this case off the path down to the rocky foreshaw

Sean The Sheep

Between Lokwood Beck and Castleton stands this rather ugly bus shelter.  Until now.  Some creative genius has decorated it.  Classic!

Scotland 2014

A couple of pictures from my annual climbing/skiing trip to the highlands.  More snow than I've ever seen before and little ice to climb on.  But who cares?

 Here's the top of Nevis Range ski slopes.  Aonach Mor

 Aonach Mor West face.  I climbed an easy route up here

Looking east towards the Grey Corries from Aonach Mor

Milk Stands

Boulby Banks Farm

Before the  1970s milk produced by farms was left for collection in aluminium milk churns from outside farms.  Just about every farm or smallholding had at their farm entrance a stand, normally made of stone or wood.  Nowdays these are rare.  Stone examples survive, this one 

 is in Hawsker village at Grange Farm.  As you can see this one has old telegraph poles to support the stand made of solid stone.

The last milk churn collection was in the late 1970's .

I also remember a locally published book with a collection of photographs of milk stands published around that time too.  Alas I never bought a copy.

Pointless Signs

Half way between Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay on the Cleveland Way is this gem.  Actually there are two identical signs.  Rather obvious in my opinion.  But perhaps they are for the blind?  Nope!  Close examination tells me there's no braille either.

I hope to collect some more on my travels.

Peat Cutting - North York Moors

High above Glaisdale head in grid square NZ7300 are  the last peat banks on the North Yorkshire Moors, there were once active peat cuttings immediately below Randy Mire reservoir just west of Beck Hole. These were last worked around the late 1970's and there are the faint trace of peat cuttings near Pike Hill Moss although these have not been worked for at least 50 years or more.

Ligging out or removing the peat uses a special peat spade and is carried out early in spring, they are then left to partially dry out. 

  
They are then stacked into rickles to fully  dry out 

Traditionally many farmers on or around the moors had rights to gather peat but The last cutters here are John Drew from Low Gill Farm and Mr J Thompson from Plumbtree Farm both in Glaisdale.

The rights to cut peat are held by properties - not by individuals.  Newcomers try to keep the tradition going but after a season or two discover it is much easier to install central heating, or simply buy coal and give up.  Mr J Thompson has now retired and no longer cuts peat.

 Peat when burnt has a particular smell and burns with little flame and leaves only a fine ash in the hearth.

I have al,so just seen some pictures taken a couple of years ago of peat cutting near the Falcon Inn on the Scarborough Rd.  It shows peak stacks next to some forestry but I do not know the exact location.