Hagg's Gate

I didn’t realise it at the time but this is an almost opposite view to a photo I took earlier in the summer. I am on Hasty Bank, one of the bumps of the Cleveland Hills, and looking down onto the col at the top of Clay Bank on a contrasty early evening with bright skies and the moors in shadow. Hidden by the trees, the road from Stokesley to Bilsdale passes over the col which is named as Hagg’s Gate on older Ordnance Survey maps. Gate here means a road and hagg a wooded slope. Haggesgate is first mentioned in a 12th century document relating to the grant of land to Rievaulx Abbey. On reaching the col from Stokesley, Haggesgate climbed up Carr Ridge onto Urra Moor where it joined another ancient road, Thurkilsti heading south.