Danby Beacon Multi-Cache
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The cache is located near to Danby Beacon, a superb viewpoint dating back to the time of the Stone Age.
The co-ordinates will not take you to the cache, but to an information point from which you can work out the final cache co-ordinates using the distance in km to a variety of places. Finding the cache does not involve a hike - it is VERY close by! There is ample parking nearby. Please ensure cache is out of sight when replaced.
Final co-ordinates: N 54° AB.CDE W 000° FG.HIJ
AB = Whitby + Runswick Bay
C = Great Fryup Dale – Danby
D = Cook Monument Easby Moor – Goathland
E = (Guisborough + Glaisdale) ÷ Scaling Dam
F = Castleton
G = Runswick Bay – Ralph Crosses
H = (Goathland + Runswick Bay) ÷ Scaling Dam
IJ = Middlesbrough + Bilsdale Mast + Lealholm
On 22nd October 2008 Danby’s restored historic beacon was lit by Lord Downe in a ceremony scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of Nelson's victory at Trafalgar. The new beacon, which has been made from a type of steel called corten, will eventually take on a weathered look, and replaces an old wooden beacon which marked the site until it disintegrated in 1999.
Over the centuries the moorland site high above Danby village has seen a number of early warning systems, possibly dating as far back as the Vikings. There are valid recordings of a beacon in place in the early 1800s aimed at warning of an invasion by Napoleon and the French fleet. A retired soldier and his wife lived in a stone hut beside it ready to light it at the first sighting of the French so that the warning could be passed through a chain of similar beacons across the country.
During the Second World War, the beacon site provided a much more sophisticated warning system in the event of enemy invasion with one of the country’s earliest radar stations, constructed before the war in 1938. Danby Beacon provided long range early warning for raids approaching the north midlands and the industrial cities of the north of England.
Also, it was the radar station which tracked the first German bomber to be shot down on English soil in the Second World War. The bomber was brought down by the late Sir Peter Townsend who wrote of it: “I shall never forget that day; Danby Beacon deserves to be remembered by succeeding generations who owe their freedom from Nazi tyranny to the young men and women, crews of radar stations like Danby who stuck to their posts and by their skill and courage helped to protect our island from enemy invasion.” Peter Townsend will also be recalled as the man who courted the late Princess Margaret, sister of the present queen.
The new Beacon has been erected by the efforts of members of the Danby Beacon Trust who raised £22 000 to fund it. Visit the site on a windy day and the sound of the wind through the Beacon’s basket is almost eerie. A fantastic place, with views to the ends of the Earth.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre fbzr fgbarf nzbatfg gur urngure
Treasures
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