Sunday 18th October 2020 Not a lot of people know this but you can download excellent on-line field guides, or self-guided geology tours, from the British Geological Survey’s Earthwise site, in this case one around the Durham Peninsula as published by the Yorkshire Geological Society of which I’m a member. On Sunday I finally decided …
Ashgill Force is an unexpectedly impressive waterfall tucked away discreetly off the B6277 between Teesdale and Alston in Cumbria, UK. It’s most conveniently accessed from Ashgill Bridge which crosses the Ash Gill shortly before it joins the River South Tyne (NY 759404). A 10-metre thick lip of blue-grey Scar Limestone – almost directly below the …
Wednesday, 7th October 2020 If I’d read it anywhere other than in Russell Bulman’s Introduction to the Geology of Alston Moor I’d have assumed that Cash Force was a dodgy pay-day loans company and not the remote but spectacular waterfall it actually is. Russell goes on to say that, while flowing off the northern slopes …
Is Cash Force Northern England’s most underrated waterfall? Read More »
Tuesday, 29th September 2020 Today I drove up to Eastgate, in Weardale, to walk up the Rookhope Burn and photograph a rock. Not any old rock though, this was one of the few outcrops of the Little Whin Sill in Weardale. The Whin Sill itself is a massive intrusion of volcanic magma which underpins Hadrian’s …
Turn Wheel Linn inspires first ‘official’ Durham Cow video Read More »
Monday, 21st September 2020 This afternoon, as part of my long-term, casual project to record the fortifications of Northern England and the Scottish border, I paid a quick visit to Staward Peel which, between 1272 and 1384, during the Scottish Wars of Independence and much of the Hundred Years War, was a virtually impregnable tower …
Saturday 5th September 2020 Historically, the counties and shires along the border between England and Scotland have seen their fair share of conflict. Never more so than during the medieval period when for several centuries, national armies and predatory familial bands known as Reivers would decimate those individuals or communities unfortunate enough to fall within …
Thursday 3rd September 2020 Although we’d put about three thousand miles on the tandem in 2019 including a 200-mile single day event, short tours in Holland and Belgium and a 3-week camping tour of the Dordogne, Lot and Tarn regions of France, a knee injury had curtailed much of Diane’s cycling in 2020 resulting in …
Friday, 24th April 2020 If you’ve never heard of County Durham sculptor Ray Lonsdale and you live in the North East of England, you might be familiar with Tommy, a sombre, oversized sculpture of a war-weary soldier which dominates Terrace Green on the promenade at Seaham Harbour. Since it was installed in 2014, Ray’s work …
Saturday, 22nd June 2019 On the longest day this year, Diane and I entered our first event on the tandem that we bought in October last year (2018) from JD Tandems in Gargrave near Skipton, North Yorkshire. The event was Chase the Sun’s inaugural Northern UK cycle tour (it’s not a race, nor is it …
Tuesday, 17th October 1346 Here’s an event at which The Durham Cow was absent and a good job too! It’s an event that sets our home town well apart from the competition and which – as medieval battles go – is more significant than most. As a self-declared ‘non-expert’ I rely for information on various …
