Finally blue skies. Well patches of blue at any rate. Plenty of water on the fields of Little Ayton. Using the footpath meant a paddle. A good start to a run.
In the Domesday Book Little Ayton was referred to as ‘alia Atun’, the other Ayton, and was listed as waste, having no value, after having been decimated by William the Bastard seventeen years earlier.
In the left distance is Easby Moor on which Captain Cook’s Monument can just be made out. The target for today.
Although the North York Moors has got off lightly with the double whammy of Storm Abigail and Hurricane Kate, the River Esk is still high. I had hoped to take a photo of the stepping stones just the other side of the footbridge but nothing was visible below the murky waters. Access is by the walkway under the bridge but that too was under water.
There is also an Esk in Cumbria. The name is derived from the Celtic Isca meaning ‘water’, so River Esk is ‘water river’. Not very imaginative. The Exe in Devon and Axe in Somerset also derive from the same root.
Out and About ... 