Blakey Topping. And fog.

The other week, as I stood atop Simon Howe on a clear, sunny morning, I looked across at the distinct hump of Blakey Topping in the distance and thought ‘that…

Simon Howe

I have a new second-favourite viewpoint on the North York Moors. My favourite is still Danby Beacon (which has become a sort of place of pilgrimage any time I’m in…

Last of the season

Whenever I see the bilberry mentioned online or in books, it often seems to be preceded by the word ‘humble’. The humble bilberry. And I can never work out why,…

Sea mist

Of course it’s lovely when the sun shines, but I also have a soft spot for those days on the east coast when a sea fret rolls damply in off…

Adders and lonely places

Much as it’s always exciting to go where the path doesn’t, it can also be bloody hard work. As you struggle through thick, chest-high bracken, sticky ropes of goosegrass tangle…

Visit Lythe

The other day at Ormesby Hall there were loads of vintage travel posters pinned up on the walls in the old servants’ quarters at the top of the building. I…

Magic plastic and tiny trains

Even as a small boy, I already possessed that coveted talisman of middle age known as the National Trust life membership card. My father being a Yorkshireman, and reasoning quite…

Showtime

It’s years since I went to a proper country show. Probably about fifteen or twenty years, actually, to the point where my memories are hazy at best. The other day,…

A peek into the secret gardens

[Edit, Dec 2019 – Since I wrote this half a decade ago, the estate has updated its website, and there’s now a nice article about the gardens by Lady Normanby,…

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