Category: Commondale
-
Haggaback Farm
This must be one of the highest farms on the moors. Haggaback Farm stands almost 800 feet above sea level on Commondale Moor. A bleak and exposed spot. Most farms are usually sited in the middle of their network of fields, to minimise distances travelled. Haggaback is strangely at the edge of the high moorland,…
-
Commondale
Commondale is quite a short valley. Commondale Beck is barely 2 miles long from the meeting of Ravensgill Beck and Sleddale Beck and its confluence with the River Esk. The hamlet of the same name lies at the “head” of the valley. This photo was taken on Commondale Moor with some old drainage ridges noticeable…
-
White Cross
You might be forgiven for thinking that White Cross is so named because it is white but the whitewashing has been carried out by all the boundary stones of the Dawnay Estate. The stone post is actually 19th century sandstone but the limestone base is much older probably medieval. The original Christian cross now resides in…
-
Bus Shelter, Three Howes Rigg
In 2014 this bus stop was nominated as the most loneliest in the UK in the BBC magazine. It’s two kilometres from the nearest house at Commondale and once a fortnight the No. 26, operating from Glaisdale to Guisborough, passes at 10:30 in the morning (alternate Thursdays excluding public or bank holidays). That leaves you with two hours forty…
-
Heather Burning
In all directions plumes of smoke can be seen on the moors on a good day at this time of the year. The gamekeepers are burning the heather. Grouse feed on heather. Young shoots provide the best nutritional value but grouse require taller heather for nesting and cover. To provide a managed supply of young heather patches of heather are…