The Fairy Stones - Burdale

 The Fairy Stones are located in a valley at Burdale, 3 mile to the north of Fridaythorpe in East Yorkshire.

 The Fairy Stones are a group of large rocks sitting high up on the valley side. The valley itself is called Fairy Dale, and the Fairy Stones are the only visible rocks in that part of the valley. The stones are pieces of a weathered outcrop of a Breccia type rock, made up of chalk, limestone, and flint fragments, fused together.

 The fairy name of the stones and the dale point to this location being connected with the fairy folk in the past, however, any folklore about them appears to have been lost. The Fairy Stones name does appear on the first edition OS map (1854), and in his 'East Yorkshire Folklore' John Nicholson notes that ...

"The superstitious among men, in order to see their future love, would hie them to the fairy stones, at Burdale, and there, with the full moon brightly shining, at midnight, would see the one who should be all the world to them." (Nicholson, 1890)

Nothing New under the Sun

Argentina  35000BC                                                       Turkey 2023

 I was struck by the hand prints (above right) on a recent visit to Saklikent Gorge in southern Turkey. Visitors to the gorge have dipped their hands in muddy silt, and pressed them onto the rock face - leaving their mark at this impressive natural feature. Perhaps it was the location, but for some reason i found the hand prints fascinating, and they somehow resonated strongly with the images of ancient hand prints dating back tens of thousands of years. (above left).

The Nafferton Fairy Stone (site of) - Driffield

 The Nafferton Fairy Stone originally stood alongside the road between Nafferton village and Driffield in East Yorkshire.

 In his book 'East Yorkshire Folklore', John Nicholson records ...

"About half way down the hill forming the eastern slope of Nafferton Slack, by the road-side, to prevent waggons leaving the roadway, stood a large stone, which was believed to have wonderful powers. At night, at certain seasons, it glowed like fire, sometimes it seemed but the portal of a well-lighted hall ; and one old stone-breaker declared he had heard wonderful music issuing therefrom, the like of which he had never heard before ; while on one occasion he had seen troops of gaily-dressed elfins repairing thither, some on foot and some in carriages, and they all went into this mysterious hall. The old man is dead, the stone is gone, and the fairies have departed." (Nicholson, 1890).

Ancient Myra - Turkey

 The ruins of the ancient city of Myra are located in Demre, a town 60 miles south west of Antalya in southern Turkey.

 Around 2000 years ago Myra was one of the main cities in the state of Lycia in the Anatolia region of Turkey. The city later came under Greek and then Roman control, and ongoing excavations are revealing a glimpse of Myra as a culturally rich city.

 The city was already well established before 500 BC, when a Necropolis was built on the hillside above Myra. Elaborate tombs were carved into the rock, some in the form of temple facades, while others resemble the wooden fronts of Lycian houses. Carved figures of humans and animals are also present around the tombs entrances.

The Barghest of Busky Dike lane - Fewston

Busky-Dyke, the Busky-Dyke,
Ah! tread its path with care,
With silent step haste through its shade,
For "Bargest" wanders there!

 In his 'Yorkshire Legends and Traditions' (written in the late 1800's) the Rev Thomas Parkinson mentions the Barghest of Busky Dike Lane - just to the west of Fewston village, 7 miles to the west of Harrogate.

 The Barghest was a supernatural creature capable of assuming different forms, but often appearing as a very large and menacing black dog with glowing eyes. The rev. Parkinson had spent his childhood at Crag Hall near Fewston, so he would have heard tales of local ghosts and spirits, but by the time he came to publish his book in 1888, the tradition of the Fewston Barghest had faded, and the area changed dramatically with the building of a reservoir in the Washburn valley.

Lastingham Church Scrapes

 The village of Lastingham is located on the southern edge of the North York Moors - 18 miles to the west of Scarborough.

 Lastingham is the site of an early Celtic monastery established in the 7th century by monks from Lindisfarne. At that time the area was quite wild and remote, providing the isolation required for a spiritual life away from worldly temptations. The monastery remained an important religious site through the Anglo Scandinavian period, with the monastic church rebuilt and extended several times to form the church we see today.

 Lastingham is one of the few churches in the country to have a subterranean crypt, which can now be accessed by steps descending from the church above. This crypt dates to just after the Norman conquest, and was built on the site of an earlier church and burial place of Saint Cedd - the founding monk from Lindisfarne.

Not another Rocking Stone? - Hebden Gill

 The village of Hebden is located 1.5 miles to the east of Grassington, in the Yorkshire Dales.

 To the north of the village, Hebden Beck flows along a scenic valley which winds its way down from the hills and higher moorland areas. Part way along the valley, the OS map marks a Rocking Stone perched high up on top of a crag on the east side of the beck. A visit in April 2023 found the large block of stone overhanging the crag, but it was not possible to make it rock.

 In the late 1800's, Bailey John Harker mentioned the Hebden Rocking Stone in his guide to the area, but even in his day it seems that the stone was not easy to move. Describing the location, he noted that ...

"Here everything is in confusion, the rocks being scattered in wildest fashion everywhere in the valley, while away up to the right on the top of the scar, is seen a monstre block, which appears as if the hand of a child might send it crashing into the depths below. This is the Rocking Stone. Its weight is calculated to be 70 tons; but at present it is not so easily moved as formerly. The curious like to climb up to it and examine it; but there are no markings upon it to indicate that it has ever had any Druidical connection." (Harker, 1890)

The ghost of Tom Lee

 250 years ago a brutal murder took place on a quiet lane near the village of Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales. Many years may have passed since the killing took place, but the crime still linger in the folklore of the area.

 The murderer's name was Tom Lee, - a lead miner and inn keeper of the Blue Anchor in Grassington. In 1768 Lee was put on trial and hanged for the murder of Richard Petty, the local doctor. One version of the story leading up to the murder relates how Tom Lee was shot while trying to commit a robbery. His injuries were so serious that he had no choice but to call the doctor, who soon realised what Lee had been up to. Lee feared that doctor Petty would turn him in, and so to keep him quiet he decided to kill him. The other version of the story has both men attending a cock fight in Kettlewell, where the doctor won a large sum of money betting on the fights. The two men rode back to Grassington, stopping at the inns along the way, until, as they approached Grassington, Tom Lee killed the doctor and took his money. There is probably some truth in both versions.

Songlines - The Seven Sisters Dreaming - Paris

 Songlines is an exhibition of Australian tribal art depicting the Dreamtime story of kungkarangkalpa - the Seven Sisters. This creation Dreaming forms a Songline stretching 4000km across the whole Australian continent, and as a consequence, several tribal groups share the Dreaming, and are custodians of its sacred sites on their land.

  The Seven Sisters are ancestral beings who came down from the sky. When men saw the women they wanted them to be their wives, but this was against clan law, so the women drove them away with their digging sticks. A powerful shape shifting spirit man also wanted one of the sisters for his wife, and so the women decided to flee across the country. The spirit man followed them, and in their attempts to evade him, the Sisters created various features in the landscape, such as sand hills, rock outcrops, water holes, and caves etc. Eventually the Sisters escaped by transforming themselves into fire, and ascending back up into the sky where they became the Pleiades star group.

The Grassington Fairy Hole cave - rediscovered

 The few modern references to Fairy Hole Cave list it as an alternative name for the Cove Hole Cave, located in the limestone scar, half a mile to the north of Grassington, in the Yorkshire Dales.

 Older references however, indicate that the Fairy Hole was actually a separate cave, with Bailey John Harker writing in the mid 1800's, noting that ....
"Close by Cove Hole there is a place called the Fairy Hole, the name of which tells us the faith that Grassingtonians once had in these creatures of the fancy. (Harker 1869).

 Harker was born in Grassington, so his local knowledge should be reliable. A few years later, Harry Speight visited the Fairy Hole, and provides some extra details ....
"On the right of the lane and a field-length distant, is the ancient Fairy Hole, a low opening in the limestone which can only properly be entered by such tiny sprites as the fairies. Ordinary mortals must descend to an access on all fours. Some yards away is the Cove Hole, a long wedge-shaped cave, twelve feet high and forty feet through to the far side." (Speight 1900).

Saint Wilfrid's Needle - Ripon

"And Saint Wilfred's bone of Ripon to keep cattle from pain,
And his needle which sinners can not pass the eye"
(Holme, 1537)

 Ripon cathedral is built on the site of an early church established by saint Wilfrid in 672 AD. The small crypt beneath the cathedral is believed to be part of this church, and archaeological survey work revealed that the crypt was built with reused Roman stonework, probably brought from Aldborough, 6 miles to the south east. Within the crypt, a set of rough stone steps can be seen leading up to a small opening through the north wall. This opening is known as Saint Wilfrid's Needle, and for hundreds of years it was the focus of unusual religious and folklore practices.

The "Neddel of Seynt Wilfred" is mentioned in a will dating from 1466, but it was William Camden's Britannia which first provided some curious details about the 'Needle's Eye' ...
"Within the Church, Saint Wilfrides Needle was in our grandfathers remembrance very famous. A narrow hole this was, in the Crowdes or close vaulted roome under the ground, whereby womens honestie was tried. For such as were chast did easily passe through, but as many as had played false were miraculously, I know not how, held fast and could not creepe through."

Pratting about at Gormire Lake

 Gormire lake is located at the foot of Sutton Bank, 5 miles to the east of Thirsk.

 On previous visits to Gormire, an almost uncanny silence was noticed around the lake when there was no one else about. The enclosing low ridge and high cliff face seems to shield the lake from external noise, while the still body of water perhaps absorbs or deadens any sound.

 A visit to Gormire on a cold day in January 2023 found the lake totally frozen over, and we seemed to be the only ones who had ventured down to the lake on that chilly morning. So it was rather startling when the silence was broken by a loud 'Twing-Twang-Twang-Twang' noise echoing across the lake. The sound was so bizarre and out of place that we immediately looked up and around for some explanation, but there was nothing. Utterly puzzled by the noise we walked on, then a few minutes later the sound came again, but this time we could see a young guy further around the lake skimming stones across the frozen surface. Some how this created the strange noise as the stone skipped across the ice, with the sound seemingly greatly amplified by the massive frozen sheet. 

Megaliths exhibition (2023) - Kirkleatham Museum

An exhibition of photographs and paintings by local artists Gavin Parry and Tony Galuidi.

The 100 Ton Rocking Stone

 The Victorian guide books to Brimham Rocks mentions a 100 ton rocking stone sitting on top of a high crag, which was said to be visible from Harrogate, 8 miles away to south-east.

"Elevated on the southernmost range of crags, is a stupendous Rocking Stone, conjectured to weigh above one hundred tons, and visible even from Harrogate and its surrounding country. On the top are two rock basons, of a circular form." (Linney, 1838).

 There are no modern references to this rocking stone, and it is not shown on any maps of the site, so for some reason it appears to have been forgotten. Several visits to the crags failed to find the rocking stone, which seemed odd given its supposed size and elevated position.

In search of Saint Winifrid's Needle

 Even a brief look into the history and folklore of Roseberry Topping reveals a fascinating picture of this impressive local landmark. One interesting source of information is the 'Chaloner letter' written in early 1660's, which mentions Roseberry Topping, and noted that ...

 "it hath somtymes had an hermitage on it, and a small smith's forge cut out of the rocke, together with a clefte or cut in the rocke called St. Winifrid's Needle, whither blind devotion led many a silly soul, not without hazard of a breaknecke tumblinge caste, while they attempted to put themselves to a needless pain creeping through that needle's eye."(Nichols, 1853)

 The presence of a hermitage, and the 'blind devotion' of 'many silly souls' crawling beneath a rock dedicated to Saint Winifrid, points to this hill top having once being a religious site visited by pilgrims before the Reformation. There are no signs of the hermitage or other features on the hill top today, except perhaps for a rectangular section cut out of the rock near the modern trig point. This appears to be a much worn floor surface, and may be all that survives of the hermitage (or forge?). What became of Saint Winifrid's Needle is also unknown, it may have been destroyed after the Reformation, or by later quarrying. Another possibility is that the cleft was part of the cliff edge which collapsed after a massive lands slip in 1912. The Chaloner letter notes that there was a danger of people falling to their deaths as they crawled through the 'Needle's Eye', which suggests that it was on the edge of the crag high up on the hill.