Invaders From......

.... Paddling down the R.Tees near Newsham we came across this tropical rain forest.  Alas, it consists of mainly three introduced species and non of them from the tropics

:-

Giant Hogweed, from Southern Russian/Caucasus
Japanese Knotweed, from errrr??? Japan!
Himalayan Balsam, from ????  Oh, yes - the Himalayan mountains.

All three species spread easily down rivers and in some areas, such as this on the Tees forms dense stands eliminating all native species.

Inscribed Stones - Harwood Dale.

There are many inscribed stones within the NYMNP.  Many are well known and recorded by Stanhope White and others.  Some record roads being built, others boundaries.  This one near the south end of Jugger Howe Beck is enscribed:-  

"Oct 1948  This day we pledged our troth". and below in a similiar script  "Today Nov 12 1951"

I wonder who this was and whether they ever got married.  Its entirely possible that one or both of them are still alive.  Perhaps the lettering lower down records the day they actually got married?  Who knows?

This stone is quite difficult to find but this will help  SE 94718 98040

From the bridge crossing Lownortnorth Beck at SE  947982  This is just 100m south of the junction between Bloody Beck & Lownorth Beck. If you look up the slope, almost inline with the direction of the bridge you should sea a dark rock between two patches of birch trees. The inscription is on this rock and the inscription faces towards where I took the photo from.

2. walk over the bridge (don't follow the pubnlic footpath which goes left!) follow a path through some young oak and past a couple of wood seats/benches, as though you were heading towards Bloody beck. Just a few yards beyond the last bench you should now come bloody beck. Don't cross it. But look to your left (SW) and follow a reasonably obvious track up the shoulder through some silver birches. After 20 metres or so you should see a very big rock which is split in two and around 8ft in hight and probably 20 ft in length. The inscription is about 3 ft off the ground at the end you have approached from.. If by chance you go past this enormous ground fast rock you end up at a wire fence - you've gone too far.!

Another Whinstone house, Undercliffe Hall, Great Ayton

 Grey Towers  is one house I know of which is built from basalt or whinstone as its known locally.  Another house is Undercliffe Hall, just outside Great Ayton.

This large victorian house was built by William Jones in 1873 who owned the first chemical plant on Teesside.

Like Grey Towers all the stone around the windows and the quoin stones are all of local sandstone.  The remainder is all local basalt which in this case only came from the quarries less than a mile away.

I also noticed some of the entrance gate contained some basalt and it may be that some of the gatehouse is also basalt judging by the size of the stonework.  Unfortunately for me the gate house is now painted white. So I can't be sure!

In Pickering for the war weekend I noticed a cottage, appropriately called Whinstone Cottage, which was also constructed of the small blocks of basalt.  It is opposite the old mill on the road by the trout farm.

If anyone knows of any other buildings built out of this black hard stone, contact me please.

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