Weekend of 21-22 June 2025: the seals of Ravenscar and Rudston Monolith
Ravenscar 21 June 2025
We hadn't been to the seaside for a while and decided to go for a walk and visit the seals. We arrived at high tide, so we walked through the moorland and fields to Robin Hood's Bay and then back along the sea front.
The red line shows our track. Shift-click the track link to open it in nakarte.me.
We're walking across the moors towards Robin Рood's Bay.
There are several species of heather growing in our moors. The bright purple bell heather (Erica cinerea) is beautifully set off by the light-green blueberry plants. Common heather (Calluna vulgaris) will bloom later. There is also leaved heather (Erica tetralix).
The path suddenly emerged from the bushes and crossed a scree. It was fine shale, which is usually only found along the edge of the sea.
We walked past the farm. Ducks, chickens, and roosters walked around the yard. A detached house with a pointed roof caught our eye, probably someone's workshop. There were stone steps leading up to the first floor.
We stopped by three horses. They were not afraid of us and were happy to socialise.
We almost missed this slow worm (Anguis fragilis) in the woods.
A former mill on the bank of the stream. Water was diverted from the stream above the mill and channelled to the top of the wheel. The wheel appears to be in working order, but it is not clear if it is ever used.
A seagull takes the fish boxes out of the bin, carefully opens them up and eats whatever people haven't finished.
The tide started to go out and we were able to walk back along the sea.
Here we were all alone.
Small streams flow off the cliffs and there are even waterfalls.
We reached the cape where the seals had settled.
On the shore the seals look helpless and clumsy. The younger seals often venture further away from the water.
An adult seal is sleeping peacefully among the rocks.
Two seals have climbed out on a rock and are looking around. A third seal is rushing towards them.
Another curious teenage seal. He wasn't scared of people at all.
We almost missed this sleeping seal.
It was very hot in York but we had a lovely day out by the sea.
Rudston Monolith 22 June 2025
The next day we went cycling near York, in the Yorkshire Wolds.
The red line shows our track. Shift-click the track link to open it in nakarte.me.
The church in the village of Rudston. This is the Rudston Monolith, an ancient stone, probably from the Bronze Age (1600 BC). The stone is approximately 8 metres high. It is the tallest freestanding stone of its time in England.
A wheat field. All the fields in Yorkshire Wolds are covered with small white stones of chalk. It is hard to believe that anything can grow in these rocks.
