The Terminal Moraine at Kildale: Elgee Revisited

An early morning climb up Park Nab before the day’s work began at the Kildale chapel archaeological dig (Out & About passim). I shall wait until later in the season to write properly about that—when we have found something to write about.

Instead, as I looked out over the valley, I found myself returning to the familiar question: where did glacial Lake Eskdale end? That the lake existed is without doubt, but where did the ice stop and the water begin? The ice wall, no doubt, would have shifted over time, and with the seasons to some extent. But was there an average limit?

In glacier-carved valleys, great mounds of debris are often left behind when the ice retreats. These form a rough wall across the valley floor, known as a terminal moraine. Frank Elgee believed one of these can be seen at the entrance to Kildale¹The Moorlands of North Eastern Yorkshire. Frank Elgee. Page 139. 1912.. According to him, the ice advanced from the direction of the Lakes or Scotland, piling up material as it came. When it reached Kildale, the heap was so large it effectively dammed the valley. The ice could go no further. Beyond a lake formed. Higher up Kildale, and in the Esk Valley before Castleton, there is no boulder clay, no erratics—nothing to suggest the ice made it past that point²A Ramble in Cleveland | Northern Weekly Gazette | 20 September 1902.

Elgee claimed the railway at Rowbar Hill cuts clean through this moraine, just before the line enters Kildale Station from Battersby. You can spot Rowbar Hill in the photograph—left of centre in the middle distance, a bright green field. The cutting is just this side of it. Rabbit holes in the bank, he said, revealed sand among the moraine’s mix³Geological Notes. | Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser | 10 October 1903.

That was Elgee, writing 120 years ago. But what do the present-day geologists say? The British Geological Survey’s online viewer shows a clear boundary here. Westwards, the deposits are labelled “Vale of York Formation – clay, sandy, gravelly.” To the east, towards Kildale, it shifts to “Glaciofluvial Deposits, Devensian – sand and gravel.” That sounds to me like Elgee is still relevant today.

• 1
  The Moorlands of North Eastern Yorkshire. Frank Elgee. Page 139. 1912.
• 2
  A Ramble in Cleveland | Northern Weekly Gazette | 20 September 1902
• 3
  Geological Notes. | Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser | 10 October 1903