Mucking About Yorkshire

Kirsty and I went on a cruise around northeast Yorkshire, first stopping at a deserted Medieval village (more like non-existent) and over to the Bempton Cliffs to see the puffins (apparently they were on holiday).

Nothing really left but some outlines of long houses and the ruins of St. Martin, a medieval church. Nice hike though :)

The sign to the right kind of caught my eye.

Sign on the hike to the village. Um, which way to Wolds Way?

 Foundations of one of the long houses that the villagers slept in and used for livestock.

View of the church from where the long houses were.

View from the barn towards the church.

View of the barn. I'm not sure, but I think this woman keeps following me around Europe.

Gravestone inside of church.

1695!

View of the pond by the church.

View from the pond back towards the church. The orange thing is ye olde life preserver.

Bempton Cliffs:

The cliffs were striking, the 60 mph winds were a bit much! I couldn't hold the camera steady at times, and then the sideways rain stung when it hit our faces. But hey, we were on a puffin hunt, so all was good.

No puffins here today!

The seagulls and cormorants were wedged into the cliffs trying to stay out of the driving wind and rain.

Watching these guys trying to pick up trash in Flamborough in the howling wind was a hoot!

This is all for Yorkshire and England. We are going to take the train from York to Hollyhead, Wales tomorrow. Then the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin. Take care to all and I will be sending the next blog from Galway, Ireland sometime in the next few days.

No Hillbillies Here

We went to Beverley to do a bit of shopping and see the sights. While the Minster was not as grand as York's, it still was impressive. There was a wedding about to take place, so we were able to see the bride pulling up to the Minster and make here windy entrance (the wind be blowing here a lot matey!). However, because the wedding was in progress, I didn't go in. I did shoot a few pictures from the door.

The Minster owes its origin and much of its subsequent importance to Saint John of Beverley, who founded a monastery locally around 700 AD and whose bones still lie beneath a plaque in the nave. The institution grew after his death and underwent several rebuildings. After a serious fire in 1188, the subsequent reconstruction was overambitious; the newly heightened central tower collapsed c. 1213 bringing down much of the surrounding church. Work on the present structure began around 1220.
It took 200 years to complete building work but, despite the time scale involved, the whole building has coherent form and detail and is regarded as one of the finest examples of Perpendicular design, the twin towers of the west front being a superlative example. These formed the inspiration for the design of the present Westminster Abbey.

Beverley is typical of the middle class towns around here, except for the cows grazing in the common area. The farmers who own the cows pay a wee man (wee being a word used here that means anything from "small" to "the") to take care of the cows and graze them in the common area.

We parked just to the upper right of this field and walked through the common area to the main part of town. You can ride your horses, graze your livestock, or run your dogs.

Hamburgers.

Beverley was once a walled city like York. This building is outside the wall.

The last part of the wall, the North Bar.

Inside the bar.

Bridesmaids waiting patiently for the bride.

The next four shots are from the Coronation Garden.

Butterfly on a headstone.

Mini-Minster, St. Mary's Church.

Door to a wee building by the common area.


Friður my friends!
(Peace in Icelandic)

A Bit of an Erosion Problem

Kirsty's mom Sharry lives a few miles from the North Sea coast. Kirsty and I went to Aldborough on the coast to look at the cliffs that are falling into the sea.

This is a picture from a news article a few years ago. All of this is gone (seaward of the railing by the car as shown in the next picture I took.

The view north from the same spot.

The wind started blowing so hard that I couldn't keep my camera still enough for the next three shots to get pictures that weren't blurred. The water, for about a half mile out, is very muddy brown.

This is another picture from a few years ago. Those row of trailers are gone, as is all of this in the foreground. The first blurry picture above is what this area looks like now.

The ground starting to break away.

This was next to the post office window in a store in Aldborough.  If someone is being a pain, one can inform the local police and they will sort it out.

Ta for now.