Mick Garratt

Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦 💙💛 🌻
Septuagenarian wanderer of the North York Moors, or wherever else I happen to be. My aim is to post a daily photo of where I’ve been on www.fhithich.uk and replicate here.

If you're trying to sell owt, bugger off.
#GTTO #FBPPR #FBPA #FBPE
#ProportionalRepresentation #ProgressiveAlliance #SlavaUkraini #TwitterRefugee

2025-08-15

The Yow and Two Boundary Stones

The yow was waiting for me. At least, that is how it felt. She stood beside two boundary stones as if on sentry duty, a glint of mischief in her eye and a smile that gave nothing away. Mona Lisa would have approved.

One stone is plain but upright, the other broken and almost recumbent, resting against its base. Its surviving inscripti ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/15/the-yow

#GreatAytonMoor #HuttonMoor #history #sheep

2025-08-14

The Long Lost Way to Cockayne

At first glance, it is nothing remarkable: a pair of stone gate stoops, standing quietly beside a graceful curve in a dry-stone wall, just south-west of Cockayne Church. But a closer look tells a different story. These are no rough farm gateposts. Each is a massive, well-dressed slab, crowned with a semicircular top. They were built t ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/14/the-lon

#Bransdale #NorthYorkMoors #history #NationalTrust

2025-08-13

Westerdale: From Templars to Ironmasters

A rare chance the other night to climb Top End, the nose of the rigg that leads up to Young Ralph’s Cross. Usually I pass this way in a rush—driving, or sometimes cycling—keen not to lose momentum on the steep bank.

Below me lies Westerdale, so named for its place as the westernmost dale in the valley of the River Esk. It ha ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/13/westerd

#NorthYorkMoors #Westerdale #history

2025-08-12

Easby Abbey

Last Sunday’s wander through Richmondshire brought us to Easby Abbey, a place where ruin and landscape merge into a single, haunting picture beside the River Swale. Artists and antiquaries have long been drawn to it—J. M. W. Turner included—captivated by its quiet grandeur.

The abbey was founded around 1152–1155 by Roald, constable of Richmond Castle, for the Premonstratens ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/12/easby-a

#NorthYorkshire #Richmondshire #history

2025-08-10

Aske Hall: Elegance with a Shadow

I am not often drawn to country estates, where the visitor is welcome only if he keeps to the designated path and obeys the “do not step on the grass” signs. Yet Aske Hall is a striking exception. This Georgian house, framed by parkland and lakes shaped by Capability Brown, wears its history well. Its story begins in the twelfth century with the A ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/10/aske-ha

#Aske #NorthYorkshire #history

2025-08-09

Purple Heather, Brown Truth

The ling, or common heather, has reached its peak bloom just days before the start of the grouse shooting season — the annual spectacle in which profit and sport take precedence over the land itself. This year, the display is patchy. Whole swathes have turned a brittle reddish-brown, appearing dead but ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/09/purple-

#NewtonMoor #NorthYorkMoors #CallunaVulgaris #GrouseMoorManagement #Ling #NationalTrust

2025-08-08

Gower Dale: Where a Railway Never Came

This is Gower Dale in the Hambleton Hills. On the far left stands the ruined shell of Gowerdale House. Rising in the centre distance is Hawnby Hill. A tranquil landscape, untouched by the grime and noise of industry. It could have been very different, had Victorian ambition not faltered.

On Thursday, 19 May ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/08/gower-d

#GowerDale #Hawnby #NorthYorkMoors #TabularHills #history

2025-08-07

Bridestones Moor: The Burden of an Ancient Earthwork

A return to Bridestones Moor for the annual task of clearing the Scheduled Ancient Monument — the prehistoric dyke — of bracken and self-seeded saplings. Without this, roots and undergrowth would soon begin to damage what little remains of it.

The dyke, a double bank and d ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/07/bridest

#Bridestones #NorthYorkMoors #history #NationalTrust #prehistoric

2025-08-06

Red Tarn: A Bowl Carved by Ice

This is Red Tarn, tucked into the hollow beneath Helvellyn that looks like an armchair carved into the mountainside. The shape is no accident. It is the work of glaciers. The steep headwall of Helvellyn and the sharp ridges of Striding and Swirral Edges are the giveaway. Together they form a semi-circle. Geologists call this a cirque. In the Lake Dis ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/06/red-tar

#Helvellyn #LakeDistrict #geology

2025-08-04

Kentmere: The Tarn That Industry Remade

I looked at the map and wondered where the real Kentmere was, the “mere,” or water, of the River Kent. There is the reservoir, high in the dale, and there is Kentmere Tarn, a long, tranquil pool screened by trees, looking for all the world like untouched nature.

In truth, nature had its turn ten thousand years ago, whe ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/04/kentmer

#KentValley #Kentmere #LakeDistrict #history

2025-08-03

The Bottomless, Town-Swallowing, Goose-Plucking Lake Gormire

Yorkshire is a county of myths, one of which insists it possesses only a single lake — Gormire. This is clearly absurd, yet it may simply be Yorkshire’s way of keeping a straight face while mocking outsiders, or perhaps a petty attempt to match the Lake D ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/03/the-bot

#HambletonHills #LakeGormire #NorthYorkMoors #WhiteStoneCliff #folklore

2025-08-02

Along the Old Hambleton Drove Road

Looking south along the old Hambleton Street drove road, the route from Yarm to York that stretches across the landscape. I have just cycled north along this track, though three hundred years ago I would have been met by an entirely different scene. Then, before the coming of the railways, the way would have been blocked ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/02/along-t

#HambletonHills #NorthYorkMoors #DroversRoad #history

2025-08-01

Clearing the Past: The Lost Drumhouse of Newton Wood

A morning with the National Trust, cutting back the summer growth from around the brick and stone remains known as the Kip, at the Cliff Rigg end of Newton Wood.

The Kip is the remains of the head of a narrow-gauge tramway incline. Ore ...

fhithich.uk/2025/08/01/clearin

#CliffRigg #NewtonWood #NorthYorkMoors #history #IndustrialArchaeology #IronstoneMining #NationalTrust

2025-07-31

On this Day in 1974 — When Health & Safety Went Mad

Just over fifty years ago, in 1974, I was into my first year of full-time work. Newly settled in North Yorkshire, it may have been then that I first looked down the short, wide dale of Greenhowe, maybe from this very spot, perhaps at this very season, when the ling is beginni ...

fhithich.uk/2025/07/31/on-this

#ClevelandHills #GreenhowMoor #NorthYorkMoors #20thCentury #history

2025-07-30

Dorothy’s Stone

Turkey Nab, near Ingleby Greenhow, is one of the steepest “road” climbs in Cleveland. The loose stony track that winds up it is not for the faint-hearted. Any driver attempting the ascent needs both patience and a steady nerve, for there is little room between the track and the sheer drop of the Nab’s edge.

To the left, immense boulders hang on as if by chance, e ...

fhithich.uk/2025/07/30/dorothy

#BankFoot #InglebyGreenhow #NorthYorkMoors

2025-07-29

From Thornborough Henges to the Marmion Tower

A visit to the Thornborough Henges, a trio of massive Neolithic earthworks near the River Ure, offers little for ground photography. Though the banks rise up to four metres, their layout is best seen from the air, so I have linked to this Wikipedia image. Once standing above wetlands, the site is now surrounded by quarried and dra ...

fhithich.uk/2025/07/29/from-th

#WestTanfield #history

2025-07-28

The Windmills Are Winning

Ah yes, a truly legendary clash of minds and metal, as the supremely rational, astoundingly gifted Don Quixote—sharp as ever—heroically attacks a gang of… consults notes… windmills. Indeed. Definitely windmills. Not, say, wind turbines, or anything remotely threatening like giant knights in armour.

From atop Roseberry Topping, the view is tragic. The frontline of ...

fhithich.uk/2025/07/28/the-win

#RoseberryTopping #Seamer

2025-07-27

Upleatham’s Old Church

This tiny church at Upleatham is believed to be the second on this site and is often claimed to be the smallest in England—just 18 feet long and 15 feet wide. Though “smallest” is a loose term, depending on what one measures—floor space, pews, or whether it still hosts services—this particular church no longer does.

Once a fine structure, its foundations can still be discern ...

fhithich.uk/2025/07/27/upleath

#Upleatham #history

2025-07-26

Quid Mirum!

The so-called Surprise View from Otley Chevin must have long since lost its element of surprise. Today was not my first visit to the Chevin but then I avoided this view. I have taken a somewhat unusual route: walking the winding path through Caley Deer Park, climbing up past the crags, spotting Almscliff Crag on the horizon, and reaching the ridge where the town of Otley stretches b ...

fhithich.uk/2025/07/26/quid-mi

#TheChevin #WestYorkshire #Wharfedale

2025-07-25

The Enigma of Elizabeth Caroline Brown

I had a few minutes to kill before a meeting at Ormesby Hall, so I wandered over to the nearby church. There I found the elaborate grave of one Elizabeth Caroline Brown (1834–1905), set among the usual Victorian gravestones. On Church Lane, not far away, stood a stone cross, rather out of place. It had replaced a lamp erected in 1896 to mark Queen V ...

fhithich.uk/2025/07/25/the-eni

#Ormesby #history

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