Witches’ Butter
Even in midwinter, when the woods look like they have given up, they can still manage a bit of a show. There are splashes of colour if you bother to look. Bright fungi flare up against the gloom, set among the stubborn brown leaves still clinging to oak and beech, and the thick brown carpet of dead bracken. All this breaks up the dark damp mass of trunks, branches, an ...
Roseberry Watching Over Enclosed Land
The nearest field in today’s photograph marks the site of the old farmstead of Summerhill, born out of Great Ayton’s enclosure of the common land in 1658. At that time, the commons stretched all the way to the top of Roseberry, open and shared in a way that would soon vanish.
...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/12/17/roseberry-watching-over-enclosed-land/
#Aireyholme #AytonBank #GreatAyton #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #17thcentury #history
The Stone They Left Behind
A rough-cut sandstone block lies abandoned at the top of an old quarry on Ayton Bank. It first appears on the 1915 Ordnance Survey 25-inch map. One wonders what caused the sudden stop—tools downed, the block left where it was, after the time and effort it must have taken to cut it, shape it, and drag it uphill the five metres or so from where it was quarr ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/07/14/the-stone-they-left-behind/
An Abandoned Stone Quarry on Ayton Bank
Someone once told me, or perhaps I read it somewhere, that there were twelve quarries along the edge of the escarpment between Roseberry Topping and Easby Moor, including the one on the summit itself. Do not expect a citation; it is just one of those pointless facts that have lodged themselves in my b ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/2025/03/17/an-abandoned-stone-quarry-on-ayton-bank/
#AytonBank #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #history #sandstone
A Water Tank, Legal Loopholes, and the Persistence of Bloodsports
One of my first photographs on this blog featured an abandoned concrete water tank below the escarpment of Great Ayton Moor. I had visited it often as a checkpoint on various orienteering courses. On a sunny day, its corrugated tin roof gleamed with a rich, rusty patina. Sadly, the roof has not survived recent storms. I had speculated at the time ...
Clouds over the North Sea
Ah, another crisp, cold morning with a blue sky. The sun, though, seemed to be having a leisurely lie-in. The reason all became clear atop Capt. Cook’s Monument. A bank of cumulus cloud hovered menacingly over the North Sea—not the friendly fair weather sort, mind you, but cumulus congestus, puffed up and self-important, like galleons scudding the skies. A storm brewi ...
A Forgotten Quarry—With a view of Roseberry
A broken down dry-stone wall enticed me to scramble over for a gander and I stumbled upon an old sandstone quarry I never knew existed with a view of Roseberry from an angle I’ve not seen before.
Ah, the uncomplicated pleasures of discovery.
It wasn't a large quarry, and a quick count reveals it to be one of twelve mapped betwee ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=33881
#AytonBank #GreatAyton #NorthYorkMoors #RoseberryTopping #quarrying
Ayton Bank — and a delve into the world of ‘Tumblers’
This morning, I was lucky enough to get dropped off in Guisborough, and decided to walk back home, a one-way trip; avoiding, of course, the more popular paths since it's a Sunday.
Ayton Bank is off the beaten track that offers a quiet location. In the distance is Easby Moor, topped with Capt. Cook's Monument. The broken ground in the for ...
The Rise and Fall of Alum Production in Great Ayton
As I descend from Capt. Cook's Monument, approaching Gribdale Terrace, the former whinstone quarrymen's cottages gleam white, with Cliff Rigg rising behind them. Before me, in the centre of the photo is a range of sandstone buildings mapped as Bank House Farm on the 1853 OS Six-inch map, but an auction advertisement in ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=31921
#AytonBank #GreatAyton #Gribdale #NorthYorkMoors #18th-century #alum #history
Through Mist and Mud
Amidst the bleakness of a dreary day near the old site of Summerhill Farm, stand these lichen covered gate posts, a testament to times long gone. The muddy path between them is now only trod by sheep, and the ruinous dry stone wall adds to the sense of abandonment. Yet, in the midst of it all, a clump of daffodils blooms, a small splash of colour amidst the withered brac ...
Everytime I go up to Capt. Cook’s Monument I find another area of clear felling
This is on Little Ayton Moor, above Hunter's Scar — note to self: have a look at this feature — revealing a view of the whole of the short valley between Roseberry Topping, Black Bank and Great Ayton Moor. A view that has not been seen for perhaps half a century.
To me, a view such as this, even on a wet and w ...
Clear felling on Little Ayton Moor has opened up super views across Great Ayton Moor all the way to Highcliff Nab
A light overnight snowfall hides the debris from the forestry work.
I guess the remainder of the forestry will go in due course.
Great Ayton Moor has a wealth of archaeological features which I've posted about many ...
http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=30919
#AytonBank #ClevelandWay #GreatAytonMoor #Gribdale #LittleAytonMoor #Lonsdale #NorthYorkMoors #archaeological #snow
