fitzcoraldo

Lovely walk up, some wind though!blowing a hoolie.
Me and tess hiked up through the bleak rubble strewn moor. then a meadow full of lovely friendly sheep and a beautiful circle. Tess dropped into a Travis Bickle conversation with one black dog-like-sheep.
Top circle, big landscape, perfect end- of- the- day circle.
Love and Life

Great favourite of mine. As me and Tess climbed the embankment and dropped into the bowl Tess gave out a “wow, didn’t expect this!”
Sums it up really.
Plans afoot to dynamite the christian pastiche into rubble, any takers?
Love and Life

Lovely little site. Me and tess approached from the road when all of a sudden we hears a screech and up fly two bloody big birds of prey /buzzards.....wow.Hard to believe that this is not a field clearance, its just too messy. If this site is insitu it must have been layed out by the dodgy cowboy dodman brother of Long Megs architect. Sounds like my kind of drude.
love and Life

Me and Tess on a megalithic odessy, found our way up to the moor and there they were. A sweet little circle perfectly formed, lovely moorland and a screaming shepherd, (I thought they whistled and ting, this dude was screaming at his dog, then the sheep all trooped down in a Mackenzie Thorpe stylee. Spent fireworks littered the site must’ve been a good party but they could have picked their shit up. Sweet circle.

Me and Tess driving over to Danby pass the wonderful Mother Mound, Freebrough Hill (Freyas Hill) once called the Silbury of the North.
Down into Danby then up to Ainthorpe, park-up and hike up to the Rigg. Elgee described the northern end of the Rigg as a Beaker burial ground, he wasn’t wrong, your tripping over cairns. As we moved through, the mists came down which was exactly what the scene called for. From the cairn field we moved onto a well defined cairn circle with a lovely big standing stone on the edge. Then onto the cross dykes and a large round barrow with a  lovely inscribed boulder perched on top stating the date of excavation and where the artifacts may be viewed (Whitby museum). Then we got a bit lost and decided to test our compass skills in the mist, to our suprise everything worked and we found a large hut circle exactly where we thought it would be. Bit more mooching then we dropped down into the wonderfully named Little Fryup Dale and the clement weather.
Down to Danby castle which has morphed from a ruined castle to a farmhouse and back to a castle (top abode). Further down the road is the Duck Bridge an 500 year old packhorse bridge. We sat under the bridge like a couple of trolls and ate our lunch listening to the voices eminating from the fast flowing water of the Esk.
All in all a top day, top company, top sites.

love Fitz

This lovely spot is the first place I ever visited to seek out rock art. I was inspired to do so after attending a conference where Stan Beckinsall was the main speaker. As mention previously the site runs across and around a golf course and has views across the ancient landscape of the Till valley. On the far side of Dod Law is a cave that I only saw as I was leaving so I can’t tell you whats there. Well worth a visit, good carvings in a beautiful landscape.

Gotta agree with Marky mark the setting has it , the fells the dales.
It gripped me in a willie the shake stylee, “this other eden demi- paradise.... this precious stone set in the silver sea”, that whole speech filled my brain, willie always has the right way of putting things. my kids had a sheep shit fight.....perfect .

Summer 1996 midsummers eve. I was staying in a campsite just below Moor Divock when I decided to drag my long suffering daughter “up the hill to see the stones”, she usually dreads “dad and his stone expeditions”, “aw dad not more stones, they’re sooo boring”. Anyway on the promise that I’d take her to the camp disco that night we yomped up the hill.
It was a beautiful evening when we arrived at the stones and in the far of distance we could see a procession of folk winding their way up the hillside from Pooley Bridge.
We were witnessing something special, a procession to the stones.
It was no formal affair just a rag taggle group of about thirty heads, kids in tow, party packs in hands, making their way up the winding paths to the stones.I couldn’t help feeling I was witnessing a scene that was timeless. No amount of pleading with my daughter could persuade her to stay for the arrival of the party- goers, a deal’s a deal and we had a disco to attend so we split. It was enough for me though just to witness the procession and for 1 hour be transported back to my neolithic ancestry.

Roughting Linn means “bellowing like a bull” and this site truely bellows at you but you must get there soon as it is fast dissappearing.
The site itself is a vast block of sandstone covered in carvings, if the weather is hot take some water to pour on the carvings, this will bring them out.
I have visited the site over a number of years and seen the not so gradual decay and erosion of the carvings. Don’t be put of by this though, there is still enough there to make this probably the most important rock art site in England.
If you do go , please do not walk on the rock, I have placed a hex on any vandals who desecrate the site with their daisy roots so be aware pilgrim !

Long Meg has the lot, hard to find unless you come from the right direction, still in the working landscape, (thankfully) no English Heritage here. A beautiful big circle with Long Meg watching over her daughters.

Long Meg bears the signature of her creators, a pair of concentric circles carved on her side, which she wears proudly. Go seek her out, she will not disappoint you.

Got to be one of the most evocative and beautiful areas of the world.
travel south down the devils causeway passing many sites within a small area and arrive at old bewick. Bewick means bee farm
and last time I was there i saw a wild bees nest just sitting on a tree,
touching the past or what ?
Climb the hill and step into prehistory.
The landscape is rich in the prehistoric landmarks, but Old Bewick is more than that, you can see the hands of the ancients in the living rocks.
Whats there ? A reinstated Bronze age burial, a ritual complex / hillfort
The mindblower though is the most beautiful set of carvings you could ever want to see, concentric circles cups, channels, the full bifta.
All set in the mostest abience, you’ll not want to leave.
Old Bewick, it’s a gasser.