Gribdale Gate and the Edge of the Ice

A view from Cliff Rigg looking across to Gribdale Gate and Easby Moor, where the monument to Captain James Cook stands like a stubborn finger pointing at the sky. It is a landscape that seems quiet until you realise how much has happened here while human ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/24/gribdale-gate-and-the-edge-of-the-ice/

#CaptCooksMonument #ClevelandHills #CliffRigg #EasbyMoor #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #geological #history #prehistoric

A Holloway to Gribdale Gate

I have long been fascinated by this track and steep-sided gorge that leads to Gribdale Gate on the Lonsdale side. Its form suggests deliberate shaping, as though carved by generations travelling to and from Great Ayton Moor. The talus slope is composed of shaley mudstone, which weathers into a slick, unstable mass, more mud than stone whe ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/23/a-holloway-to-gribdale-gate/

#GreatAytonMoor #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #geology

Solmōnaþ — Cake, Mud, and Lowered Hopes

It is Solmōnaþ. Cake Month. A rare cause for cheer in the damp gloom of February.

In the Anglo-Saxon calendar, Solmōnaþ sat where February is now. It marked a time when offerings were made to pagan gods, back when England was less Christian and more heathen. The idea was simple. Feed the gods and hop ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/02/01/solmonath-cake-mud-and-lowered-hopes/

#Aireyholme #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #EarlyMedieval #history

Hiding the Snowbones

I woke to a fresh cover of snow and a wall of fog. One lifted the spirits, the other did its level best to flatten them. Ten minutes after leaving the house and starting the climb up Roseberry, the sky had a change of heart and slowly thinned to an azure blue. The temperature inversion gave up the fight, retreating into a thick band of white cloud that slid t ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/2026/01/10/hiding-the-snowbones/

#Aireyholme #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #snow

God Rays over Ayton Banks

On Roseberry this morning, a weld-built young chap, kitted out as if he had sprinted straight from a gym in Middlesbrough, greeted me with a cheery “Aarite, lad? Beautiful up ’ere today, init? Better than last Mondee, eh?”. His words rather floored me, not only for his unexpected use of “beautiful” but because I would need to rummage back through these p ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/11/17/god-rays-over-ayton-banks/

#AytonBanks #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors

Gribdale — Gorse, Ghosts, and Geology

A view looking down onto Gribdale Terrace — a neat row of white cottages built for the quarrymen who toiled in the nearby whinstone mine and quarries. Picturesque, if one forgets what they were built for.

And where exactly is Gribdale, you ask? A good question, though clearly one nobody has bothered to answer properly. There is somet ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/04/22/gribdale-gorse-ghosts-and-geology/

#Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #geology

Furze: Fodder, Folklore, and the Smell of Coconut

A sudden change in the weather, as if the sky has grown bored. No more sun-drenched optimism; just a grey sheet of disinterest overhead. Still, Roseberry manages to look charming, despite being surpassed by the only plant capable of making scrubland smell like a tropical cocktail — gorse. Its yello ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/04/09/furze-fodder-folklore-and-the-smell-of-coconut/

#Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #flora

Toads and Toadies—Spanghew and Sycophants

I came across this small fellow today. Brushes with nature are always a delight, especially when they are happen out of the blue, so there was no real competition for today’s photograph.

Toads, as everyone ought to know, are entirely harmless. They rid gardens of unwanted insects and yet, for centuries, ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/22/toads-and-toadies-spanghew-and-sycophants/

#Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #etymology #fauna #folklore

Following the Green Dots: An Unclassified Road to Nowhere

Now that the summer’s undergrowth is finally abating, I thought it an opportune moment to exercise a rarely-trod right of way past Ayton Banks Farm. One likes to ensure that these landowners are periodically reminded of the existence of such rights, lest they grow complacent.

According to the 1:25,000 O.S. Map, the route is ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=36488

#AytonBanks #GreatAyton #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #AccessRights

Ragwort: Friend to Insects, Foe to Livestock

Another dreich day forces me to turn to *Flora Britannica* for today’s photo.

Ragworts, a group of daisy-like flowers, include several species, with the Common Ragwort being particularly notorious. This native, biennial plant, sometimes perennial, disperses its seeds by the wind. One plant can produce thousands, making it a potential nuisance on waste ...

http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=35844

#GreatAytonMoor #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #flora