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 North Eastern Yorkshire that the valley was created by the outflow from a lake formed when the glacial ice flowing down the east coast pressed against the northern hills and overflowed into Eskdale. Although I have used the Public Bridleway known as Pannierman’s Causeway which crosses the beck lower down, this is a part of the Moors I have not been in before. Numerous holloways or sunken lanes wind their way onto the moors adding to the contour complexity. These probably would have been created when peat sods were sledged down from the high moors for winter fuel burning. It’s always good to explore somewhere new.