It is widely held that the valleys of Rosedale, Farndale, Bilsdale and here in Bransdale show not the faintest scratch of glacial meddling. While the ice sheets rampaged around Yorkshire like uninvited guests, the North York Moors sat apart, dry and stubborn, an island that refused to drown. Geologists cling to an old rule, which Elgee dismissed as “trite”: the age of a valley is written in its width, not its depth. By that measure Bransdale must be very old, for its vast spread makes its relatively shallow depth look almost easy1Elgee, F. GEOLOGICAL NOTES. | Northern Weekly Gazette | 27 September 1902. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003075/19020927/156/0014 [Accessed 31 Mar. 2022].2Elgee, F. Geological Notes. Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser — 10 October 1903. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002976/19031010/041/0002. Unless, of course, you are climbing out of the dale.
Its age shows in its cross-section. The valley must have taken shape long before the last Ice Age and has barely changed since, as if time simply lost interest. Water, ever patient, crept down the slopes, gnawing away at the softer shales. The harder rocks above collapsed in slow surrender, only to be worn down in turn. No drama, no sudden triumph, just the steady grind that wears down both stone and pride.
Which leaves the awkward matter of this boulder. How did it arrive here, planted so neatly that a farmer could hardly resist building a wall straight over it? Chance, perhaps. Or nature having a rare moment of humour, leaving behind a lump of stone that turned honest labour into something close to art.
- 1Elgee, F. GEOLOGICAL NOTES. | Northern Weekly Gazette | 27 September 1902. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003075/19020927/156/0014 [Accessed 31 Mar. 2022].
- 2Elgee, F. Geological Notes. Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser — 10 October 1903. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002976/19031010/041/0002
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