Category: Baysdale
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Stone Age rock art or a gamekeeper taking pot shots?
Another gloomy day, dry but poor visibility. I came across this large sandstone boulder on Ingleby Moor pitted with small holes, particularly on the north-east face. Stone Age rock art? Or a gamekeeper taking pot shots? Google comes up with a clue. There is an assumption among the rock climbing fraternity that they’re bullet holes.…
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The Cheese Stone
The Cheese Stone is a group of sandstone boulders on the ridge between Grain Beck and Black Beck, two tributaries of Baysdale Beck. One must be the Cheese Stone but which it is, is open to debate. There are at least two contenders. The stones do add some interest on an otherwise featureless moorland that…
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Lamb Stone, Great Hograh Moor
The Skinner Howe Cross Road was the old packhorse route to the Cistercian nunnery in Baysdale. Just after it crosses Great Hograh Beck there is a large boulder named on the Ordnance Survey map as the Lamb Stone. It’s a large sandstone boulder that shows signs of man’s hand at work. A square edge looks…
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Armouth Wath
When Baysdale Abbey was sold in 1803, the sale included a “supposed very considerable” coalmine. This would have been at Armouth Wath at the head of Baysdale, one of the furthest tributaries of the River Esk, although mining activity by this time would have been on the decline having reached its peak in the 18th…
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Heather Burning
In all directions plumes of smoke can be seen on the moors on a good day at this time of the year. The gamekeepers are burning the heather. Grouse feed on heather. Young shoots provide the best nutritional value but grouse require taller heather for nesting and cover. To provide a managed supply of young heather patches of heather are…