Category: Danby Low Moor
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Sandwith Slack
Or is it Ewe Crag Slack? Where the watershed lies between the two slacks is not obvious. For almost a kilometre the broad depression that crosses the North Cleveland watershed at 236m. asl. on Danby Low Moor, cuts no contour line. To the north it drains into Sandwith Slack then into Haw Beck and the…
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Siss Cross
A beautiful January but marred by the smell of burning heather. And on a Sunday too. It seems like we’re just spitting in the face of the Australians. And all to maximise the grouse bag. There are some rules: heather should not be burnt where the smoke is likely to damage health or cause a…
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Robin Hoods Butts
The large expanse of heather moorland between Scaling Dam and Danby Beacon is one of the bleakest moors and at its bleakest at the height of the winter. I am reminded of Christina Rossetti’s poem published under the title “A Christmas Carol”: In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan; Earth stood hard as iron,…
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Job Cross
On Moorsholm Moor. Perhaps one of the North York Moors most elusive crosses. Job Cross stands 30 metres or so north of the modern track designated as a Public Right of Way open to all traffic but once found it becomes obvious from quite a way off. The modern route must have been diverted slightly…
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Ewe Crag Beck
A run out from Danby to Sis Cross and back via Ewe Crag Beck, a deep long meandering valley. At its head it becomes Ewe Crag Slack where it is shallow, broad, and flat, forming a boggy col in the watershed. With “no stream worth mentioning” Frank Elgee suggests in his book The Moorlands of…
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Siss Cross
Typical of the many crosses that are a feature of the North York Moors. Originally erected by the Saxons or Danes after their conversion to Christianity but most replaced over the years. Their purpose has been speculated as a waymarker, territorial boundary or a memorial but may have been re-used for all of these. Siss…