Saturday

The wind whistles down the chimney, the East wind funnels its way round the house, our Jackdaw trots round the garden looking for food and the hens stare from their run fascinated by the wind and other birds in the garden.  And I am listening to the dance beat in Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Yesterday we went to Thirsk for a visit to my bank, again cold and miserable as we drove from Helmsley to Sutton Bank a fog, with rain and snow left over from the last snow storm.

I find Sutton Bank fascinating, a relict of the Ice Age. This steep cliff slightly reminiscent of the Cheddar Gorge but with only one cliff, steep sided the road takes several zig-zag turns.  Caravans are forbidden to go up it, 74 HGVs got stuck going up last year.

You can just see the road past the house

Quoting - The North York Moors by Mead;

Sutton Bank as one of Yorkshire's great motoring hills.  With its 1-4 gradient and double hairpin bend was once the scene of motor-bike trials.

Great rocks once protruded from the rock face onto the road but these have since disappeared from when the book was written in 1978, and now poured cement highlights where once they were.  He mentions a B/A cairn somewhere on the top looking towards Hood Hill.

There again if you want a really steep hill in the North York Moors, let me introduce you to Rosedale Chimney and Bank, which comes in at 1-33 gradient with zig-zag bends and many a caravan has been caught out on these bends.   We have travelled it once but Paul was a little dubious of using it a second time.

And one last thing Glen Cailliche - Home of the Celtic Gods? is the title.