I have just got back from walking along part of the Cleveland Hills above Guisborough in North Yorkshire. It was a sunny but frosty morning after several days of rain. The air was very clear. The Cleveland Hills and Pennines were capped with snow. Beyond Teesmouth, on the northern horizon were two white shapes that I had not seen before. The leftmost was long and flat, the rightmost narrow and pointed. I am fairly sure these were the snow-capped Cheviot and Hedgehope Hill, 80 miles away and almost on the Scottish border. When I was at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the '80s my tutor said that he could see the Cheviot from his office in the Claremont Tower. See the image in this old article in the Guardian for what they look like: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/26/country-diary-cheviots-clear-view-1968. Today the snowline on them was at a lower level than in that image.

#teesside #northyorkmoors #cheviothills #walking #guisborough #sightlines

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#CheviotHills #Northumberland
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Double barbed wire fence by Carter Bar. Includes one of those evil ones where the barbed wire is on the opposite side of the post to the rest of the fence. A border to tax Steve McQueen, guess it's a "hard border".

I was bagging and had to cross into England to get at a summit candidate. Lovely to watch the mist burn off. #CheviotHills

Took myself away from staring at a computer screen and wrangling websites to walk the hound. Beautiful blue and gold evening, looking towards the Cheviot Hills. A January wind, but the promise of spring around the corner.

#Northumberland #Photography #Landscape #CheviotHills #NorthCountry #January

Since I think my original post about this place got lost in my server move, I'm redoing it for #WaterfallWednesday.

This is the Hen Hole, far into the Cheviot Hills, at the head of the remote College Valley. A deep, craggy cleft in the side of Cheviot itself, where the wind blows the water backwards up the fall, peregrines swoop above the cliffs, and fairy music emanates from cracks in the rocks.

The story goes that a hunting party once rode up from Kirknewton, on the trail of a white stag. The stag led them a dance all the way up the College Valley before disappearing between the crags of the Hen Hole.

There, the party became transfixed by the sound of beautiful music. Bewitched, they followed it into a deep crack into the hill, and were never seen again. The only survivor was an elderly farmer on an old nag, left behind by the hunt, who came up behind just in time to see the last of his fellows disappear into the hillside.

#Northumberland #Waterfall #CheviotHills #Folklore #Folktale #Fairytale #Legend #Landscape @folklore