Kirbymoorside

 

The first trip of 2026, on a site that was hard to locate - it is only on campsites.co.uk

Saturday 24th

On the way I stopped at Pickering, which is a much steeper town than I remembered! Sadly the museum, castle, and train centre were all closed for the season. But I had a nice shopping trip - an inde bookshop, some locally made earrings, and a stonking sausage roll with black pudding. 

The church was open, so I went and had another look at the tremendous murals inside.

Next stop was Cawthorn Roman Camp. Up a filthy track into a circle of trees, then a short circular walk around the remains, plus a grand view halfway round. The remains are little more than hillocks now, and look better in real life than in this photo.

Arrived for the night at the small farm site with 6 hard-standings. Just EHU and disposals. 

Sunday 25th

Woke late and took the lovely 10 minute walk to the village. Found an open public loo! I was so excited I had to use them...

Nosed around, including the church of course, then on the walk back I went to the Gavel and Bean coffee shop, which is attached to Ryedale auction house.  Hanging on the wall was a mysterious guitar that no-one could tell me about, but later research by one of my Facebook pals revealed it to be the bass of Syd Little! He played it in the 1960s and it was also played backstage by Sir Paul McCartney.

Syd Little's bass guitar

Sunday 26th

Home via Iceland at York to stock up on Slimming World frozen meals. Bargains.

Christmassy break in Grassington

Friday December 26th

This is becoming a bit of a tradition. I headed up to Grassington again on Boxing Day, for a 3 night stay, It was my first winter stay in the new van and I was a bit jittery having seen endless posts in the Wildax Fb group about the vagaries of the the heating and its control panel. But it all worked beautifully, and a setting of 13/14 degrees was ample.

Spot the festive Stormtrooper

Saturday

Walked into the village and had a lovely tapas lunch of fresh anchovies and garlic/tomato bread with Spanish beer - this place is worth coming back to. Walked down to Linton falls, seeing a yellow wagtail on the way. Went to the visitor centre and bought a map for the walk to Grass Wood tomorrow, but it looks as if it will be very muddy. Back by 2.15 as it was cold. Ordered some locks for the Heiki vent, to try and stop it rattling in the wind, and booked Steve to come and fix the bathroom tambour, which had jumped its rails. Sigh. 

Sunday

Walked up river to a place called the strid. Egret, kestrel. I didn't go on the walk to Grass Wood, it was bone-bitingly cold with grey skies, but I was out for about 2 hours on the river so that was a good day. 

Dinner at the Gamekeeper Inn for their stonking meat pie, and afterwards I shared a table in the bar with other campers and had a nice chat.

NB Initially I was given the crappest table in the place, a 6 seater, opposite the main door and next to the loos. Then I was moved to one of the nice 2-seaters in the conservatory that I much preferred. Was this because someone saw sense? No. It was because I had been put on a dog-friendly table and had no dog. So basically the crappest table until it was decided I should be evicted in favour of a mutt. So now you know the solo diners place in the hierarchy. 

Post trip update: Steve fixed the door and introduced me to the miracle of silicon spray.

The Trees - but no Rush

A terrible link I know, but I had a lovely autumnal weekend looking for birds (not many) and trees (blummin' loads).

 

First stop was a Saturday meeting with the RSPB group at Nosterfield, which was very empty, both of water and birds. But a nice time with chums and a sunny walk round the lakes. In the end I did see two new spots for 2025 - Golden Plover and Widgeon. Only one more to hit 100!

I was booked in for 2 nights at a stopover at the Castle Arms in a village called Snape - which I'd never heard of but was a revelation! A pretty village, with castle ruins, an interesting chapel and links to Katherine Parr. I had tea in the van, and the next day wandered round the village before a huge Sunday lunch at the pub and then some lolling around doing nothing listening to the rain.

On the Monday it was bright blue skies again, so perfect for Thorp Perrow arboretum and wildlife centre (mainly raptors and meercats). I'd stupidly decided to visit at half-term, during their Halloween trail. But thanks to some advice from the lady at the entrance it was easy enough to avoid the little horrors darlings and do some peaceful wandering. 

The bird centre was slightly depressing, seeing massive birds from hot countries in chilly cages looking glum. I could have cheated and added vultures, kookaburras, eagle owls and more to my bird tally for 2025, but not even I would cheat that badly.