Tag: stream
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Site of High Dam reservoir
Cod Beck on a summer’s day. The threat of storms has kept the visitors away. Normally this would be heaving. It’s been a popular spot for thousands of years. During the construction of the car park, evidence of prehistoric occupation was found. During the mid-18th-century, there was a reservoir here supplying a head of water…
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An attempt at recreating a vintage postcard of Saltburn-by-the Sea
This postcard is from the East Cleveland Image Archive website. The consensus is that it dates from the late 1960s. A miserable failure I think. I was working from memory and in hindsight believe I was too low down the bank. And not close enough to the edge but the nettles beat me. Some big…
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Allt na h-Eilde
‘The stream of the hind’, swollen and tumultuous as it begins its plunges down towards Loch Leven. Its source is Loch Eilde Mòr, which I think translates as ‘the big loch of the hind’. Perhaps the shelter and grazing here are favoured by nursing hinds. Such a large volume of water coming down the ‘stream’.…
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The Fairy Stones
The road east out of Hutton-le-Hole towards Lastingham crosses a bridge over Fairy Call Beck. Just north of the bridge are the Fairy Stones, a mosaic of stepping stones naturally formed from the Cornbrash bedrock. The Cornbrash Formation is a narrow Jurassic layer of rock, composed part limestone and part sandstone, that is rich in…
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Webder Wood
A magical place. The lush green was spellbinding. Goredale Beck sprawls out over the dale bottom. Ash dominates its steep, verdant sides. Apparently home to two rare molluscs. A potential site for John Lambert’s mill which smelted lead ore mined high on Malham Moor in the 17th-century. Lambert lived with his family in Janet’s Cave,…
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Nan Scaife o’ Spaunton Moor
“Get you of the skull the bone part of a gibbetted man so much as one ounce which you will dry and grind to a powder until when searced it be as fine as wheatenmeal, this you will put away securely sealed in a glass vial for seven years. You will then about the coming…
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Howden Gill
Another blashy morning with low cloud so no panoramic views today. Plenty of water around though. This is Howden Gill which drains Great Ayton Moor. The foam is caused by natural surfactants released from decaying organic matter in the stream lowering the surface tension and allowing the water and air to mix more easily creating…
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West Beck, Beck Hole
Exploring the excavations of the 19th-century ironstone mining activities in Combs Wood near Beck Hole. These have been carried out by the Land of Iron project over a three year period. We found them easily enough. Most intriguing was a deep pit thought to have contained a waterwheel with a range of remains above which…
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Torver Beck
Wet and wild in the Lakes so kept low. Torver Commons on the western side of Coniston water was one of my first Lakeland orienteering events. I remember getting hopelessly lost. The bracken meant I kept to the paths today. This is Torver Beck which drains a vast swathe of the Furness Fells, including the…
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Brundholme Lead Mine
Glenderaterra Beck, a tributary of the River Greta, flows between the massifs of Skiddaw and Blencathra. Waking up to rain and cloud covering the high fells, I explored the mine workings alongside the beck. The ruins tell of a history of hope, hardship and disappointment. Work first began at the Brundholme Mine in 1872 but…