The Scaur—Musings on Glaciers and Randklufts

I revisited an old stomping ground today—a route I came to know far too well during the 2001 Foot and Mouth epidemic, when it was the only slice of countryside not off-limits. Back then, it was decorated with the charred remains of several burnt-out cars, but these have now been swapped for a battalion of tree guards and their obedient little saplings. Or perhaps the car are now buried in the undergrowth.  I recently learned the name of the dramatic ravine on the east side of the road up Carlton Bank: The Scaur¹‘A Ramble in Raisdale. | Northern Weekly Gazette | Saturday 19 October 1907 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003075/19071019/168/0025> [accessed 20 May 2023]. Apparently, this is a variant of the word “scar,” rendered phonetically in the local Cleveland dialect²Atkinson, Rev. J. C. “A Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect” 1868. Page 427. JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,SOHO SQUARE..

The road boasts a substantial wall, thoughtfully shielding drivers from The Scaur’s plummet. This wall has often served as a resting spot for me when cycling, ostensibly to take photos of Green Bank and Cringle Moor. I have long wondered how this deep gorge came into being. It looks like it was gouged out by some catastrophic flood, yet the area it drains is laughably small. Not far away is the watershed where Raisdale trickles south, eventually reaching the Humber, in no great rush.

The only plausible explanation is that glaciers had a hand in it. Not the ice directly—more the meltwater and other geological mischief caused by the glacier flowing south across the Cleveland plain. Perhaps there was a gap, charmingly named a Randkluft, between the ice and the escarpment. These gaps tend to widen in summer and shrink in winter, leading to the “plucking” of rocks and mud. Maybe the Busby Wood spur caused some kind of vortex in the glacier, further digging into the ravine. Or maybe that is just me speculating wildly while pottering about in the shady depths of The Scaur.

Naturally, if anyone has the answers, I would be ever so grateful to hear them.

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  ‘A Ramble in Raisdale. | Northern Weekly Gazette | Saturday 19 October 1907 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003075/19071019/168/0025> [accessed 20 May 2023]
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  Atkinson, Rev. J. C. “A Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect” 1868. Page 427. JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,SOHO SQUARE.