@sarahdalgulls@ecoevo.social
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sarahdalgulls

@sarahdalgulls@ecoevo.social

Seabirder in north east England, working to improve the lot of our coastal birds, particularly large gulls.

RSPB Species lead for Herring Gull, but my posts here are entirely my own opinions

Also:
#birds #birding #nature
#drones #uav
#GIS
#lgbtqi
#Northumberland
#Hiking
#teamgull
#seabirds
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sarahdalgulls, to random
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Harthope Burn Valley and a Settlement structure on the South-east slope of Brand's Hill. You can see where the outer stones were still lined up

A view across grassland and moorland; in the middle distance a large circle of piled stones
A close up view of the circle of piled up stones. They curve from the bottom left of the image to the centre right, and then around to the top right. A few large stones poking out of the ground in the middle of the picture have flat, smooth edges and are lined up

sarahdalgulls,
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Stone circle at Threestone Burn, where there are 13 stones, 5 of which still stand

sarahdalgulls, to random
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Luing Island, what a legend..

sarahdalgulls, to random
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Common Barking Gecko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6UCmNoEEls

sarahdalgulls, to random
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How 14 years have shown the impossibility of shrinking the UK state

https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2024/03/how-14-years-have-shown-impossibility.html?m=1

sarahdalgulls, to random
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"Roanhead Farm development risks irreparable harm to nature"

A new caravan park will cause catastrophic damage to the NT nature reserve at Sandscale, home to natterjack toads and an incredible sand dune system.

As always, the people of Barrow-in-Furness deserve better - the town is surrounded by amazing nature sites and wildlife and it needs protecting

https://www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/Roanhead_Farm_development_risks_irreparable_harm_to_nature.aspx?s_id=896507427

sarahdalgulls, to Trains
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A deep dive into the actual longest train trip in the world, last updated in 2021

https://jonworth.eu/the-longest-train-journey-in-the-world/

sarahdalgulls, to random
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Browsing an old walking guide to Scotland, really this paragraph could have been written at any point in the last 60 years

sarahdalgulls, to random
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The old turnpike road through Rimside Moor, notorious for highwaymen and haunted by ghosts and duergars, the only respite the Halfway House, across from which a Gibbet swung

http://web.archive.org/web/20130512052914/http://www.alnandbreamishlhs.org.uk/uploads/2008%20Autumn.pdf

A very muddy track crosses a burn between two low stone walls, covered n moss, and flanked by bare trees
A ruined building with sturdy stone walls, Halfway House on Rimside Moor

sarahdalgulls, to random
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Time for a walk to the final of the remains of illicit stills in upper Coquetdale

https://sarahdal.github.io/www/northumberland/2024/02/24/RorysStill.html

A bungalow sits on a flat area above a steep drop to a stream. Behind it, are some trees and a farmhouse, and the whole area is surrounded by hills. The sky is blue with a few wispy clouds
A waterfall cuts the scene in two, on the far bank a slope rises to some plantation forestry while on this side, the slope is grassy and peppered with patches of heather. The stream flows either side of a rocky outcrop forming two waterfalls. The sky is blue with some clouds
A narrow stream valley with a few bare trees. Above, is plantation forestry on either side. A few rocks white with lichen near one of the bare trees is the location of the ruin of Rory's Still, an illicit whisky still from the 1700s

sarahdalgulls,
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following on from yesterday's walk, why are there two Murder Cleughs in the Usway valley, about 5km apart?
NT888169 and NT871132.

The story behind the southern Murder Cleugh is well-known (eg https://fabulousnorth.com/murder-cleugh/, although I didn't see the memorial stone when I was there yesterday) but I can find no trace of anything to do with the more remote, northerly one

https://gridreferencefinder.com/os.php?gr=NT8880016900|NT888169|1,NT8710013200|NT871132|1&v=r&labels=1

A clip of a 1930s 1:25000 OS map. The Usway burn runs from a farm marked Uswayford in the top right of the pcture, flowing down to the middle of the bottom of the picture, where a small hill called The Middle separates it from the Hepden Burn. into this, near the bottom of the map, flows a short burn called Murder Cleugh

sarahdalgulls,
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There's also a third north of Galashiels at NT488415, about 50km to the north

sarahdalgulls,
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Because I have nothing else to do today, I looked up "murder cleugh" in google books and got a few interesting results:

The Murder Cleugh in Galashiels, named after a bloody fight between neighbouring towns in the 1300s.

From: An inquiry into the Origin and Limitations of the Feudal Dignities of Scotland by Esq. William Borthwick · 1775
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/An_Inquiry_Into_the_Origin_and_Limitatio/zJI9AAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA35&printsec=frontcover

...have entirely lost any oral account of this affair; only they shew the field of action, which, on account of the unnatural circumstances attending it, is called, The murder-cleugh. The censure of the church was inflicted on the Melrosemen, for their barbarous conduct in this affair. Fordun, vol 2.

sarahdalgulls,
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The only other old reference to Murder Cleugh I can find is in a list of Coquetdale Place names, written in 1550 and reproduced in 1828 (https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_History_of_Northumberland_in_Three_Par/b59nAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22murder%20cleugh%22&pg=PA225&printsec=frontcover)

This is an inventory of placenames in Kidland, the estate into which this part of Coquetdale lies, and includes "the Murder Clewgh", which, in 1550 is 60 years before Isabella was murdered, so may refer to the northern Murder Cleugh?

sarahdalgulls, to random
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Matt Staniek runs the Save Windermere campaign, he used to volunteer with me and I've never met anyone as energetic and committed to saving our natural world.

He's worked massively hard to raise awareness of the catastrophic state of England's greatest lake with the Save Windermere campaign

https://www.savewindermere.com/

https://youtu.be/G6F_6HGnB9c?si=rHJy1BtEThV6Dy-T

thebaywindowgirl, to random
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I met this delightful ewe whilst out walking yesterday. She was a most appreciative audience for my special sheep song.

sarahdalgulls,
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@thebaywindowgirl that face! I heard a shepherd say once that he'd never get blackface ewes, because can you imagine all those daft faces looking up at you

sarahdalgulls,
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@thebaywindowgirl altho this is not a blackface is it

sarahdalgulls,
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@thebaywindowgirl yes - mules, that's the word I was looking for. I love them

sarahdalgulls,
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@thebaywindowgirl @Ivor can you still get those posters that have all the British sheep breeds on them?

sarahdalgulls,
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@Guy @thebaywindowgirl @Ivor have you seen Soays? they're miniscule!

sarahdalgulls,
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@thebaywindowgirl @Ivor @Guy The shepherd at my old place had about 150 Cheviots, and then a collection of 5 or 6 random others, there was a Jacobs, Zwartbles, and a few others I didn't recognise, like he'd ordered a sample selection of sheep

sarahdalgulls, to random
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Birmingham getting decimated, with closure of 25 of the city’s 36 libraries and plans to turn the remaining 11 into 'library and neighbourhood advice service hubs'

https://www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/p/the-axe-falls-on-birmingham

sarahdalgulls, to random
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A walk to another 18th century illicit still high in Coquetdale

sarahdalgulls,
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Soggy Coquetdale walk - Cheviot wild goats, Buckhams Wall's Burn, the Penine Way and the Border Fence, and the ruins of Yearning Hall - an old shepherd's house

A burn winds down a steep-sided valley. Rocky outcrops poke out of grassy slopes
Stone slabs mark the route of the Penine Way across boggy ground, the wetland plants a mix of orange, browns and greens. On the right hand side, an old wire fence with rotten wooden posts marks the Scottsh-English border
Yearning Hall, the ruin of a shepherd's house. Above a valley a ruined house sits, only parts of each walls still standing. Behind it a couple of trees grow.

sarahdalgulls,
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And here's a write up of my little walk with some pictures - https://sarahdal.github.io/www/northumberland/2024/02/17/BlindburnStill.html

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