A slack is a word frequently found in the names of the very upper tributaries of moorland becks. It’s a northern word for the marshy shallow area between two stretches of rising ground. Yet Halliday Slack is a steep, precipitous gorge in the escarpment of the Cleveland Hills between Kirby and Broughton Banks. Thirty metres or so below from where the Cleveland Way crosses the slack stand a pair of gate posts on the Broughton side, surely a sign of an old path yet there is no evidence of a path crossing the slack. The gate gap is narrow with a single metal bar between, passage for man, not beast.
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