Category: Sleddale
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The Government’s Proposals to Curb Heather Burning
Gisborough Moor, from across Sleddale, is marked by neat, rectangular patches of scorched heather. These are “swiddens,” the product of controlled burning, a practice designed to create the perfect environment for grouse. The idea is simple: burn the old heather, let fresh shoots grow, and produce an abundance of birds ready to be shot in…
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Kildale Moor Revisited
Ah yes, for the second day in a row, I found myself wandering around Kildale Moor, once again staring down at Sleddale Slack—though, to keep things fresh, I chose a slightly different vantage point. Variety is the spice of life, after all. Off to the right, perched on the high ground, is Percy Rigg, home…
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Kildale Moor: Cairnfields and Forgotten Paths
The sky is a washed-out blue, untroubled by clouds. Even in their dreary winter shades, the moors still manage to look grand. I find myself on Kildale Moor, a vast expanse littered with prehistoric cairnfields, settlements, and funerary monuments. Allegedly. In reality, one must squint to discern any such features. The standing stone, however, is…
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Sleddale
The secluded valley of Sleddale, derived from the old English term ‘slaed’ for a wide flat valley, is enclosed by the moors. The farmstead, once part of the lands belonging to Gisborough Priory and formerly Sleddale Close, stands isolated amidst the heather. While historical records indicate its enclosure during the priory’s ownership, there’s scant evidence…
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Percy Cross Rigg’s Hut Circles
I thought I would take a re-look at the Percy Rigg Iron Age hut circles. It has been quite some time. Alas, the perimeter fence lies in disrepair, casting a pall of melancholy over the entire site. Located on the Percy Cross Rigg, just 460 metres down from the remains of the medieval cross, this…
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Commondale, or should that be Sleddale?
From Three Howes Rigg, if you look westward, you might’ve thought you are seeing into Commondale, or maybe Sleddale? Those fields of green let their waters drain into Sleddale Beck. The village of Commondale is tucked away in the dale. Back in its heyday, that Guisborough Priory was a big landowner in the north of…
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I walked past the entrance to Sleddale Farm today
There have been several noticeable changes since, in the late 1970s, just before Christmas, I would take a bottle of malt to the Sleddale farmers — two brothers by the name of Proud if I recall — in recognition of them allowing the Guisborough Moors Race to run through their farmyard. Neither of the two…
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Insular vert in a sea of purple
When Sleddale, ‘a wide, flat valley’, tributary of the River Esk, was donated to Gisborough Priory by a group of freemen it was referred to as ‘meadow’. Now whether anyone actually lived up here at that time or whether it was part of the Priory’s many Commondale granges is unknown. After the dissolution, it was…
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Sleddale Farm
A shaft of sunlight falls upon Sleddale Farm, an island of cultivation in a sea of dull heather moorland. The name itself means “a wide flat valley”. The farmhouse is probably Victorian but it’s been cultivated since at least the 16th-century. At the dissolution of Gisborough Priory, Henry VIII granted its grange, Sleddale Close, to…
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Dry stone wall restoration in Sleddale
This chap has got his work cut out. It looks a well-organised job. But is he rebuilding the wall or selling the stones off for someone’s extension? No, that would be too cynical. More likely he’s working downhill and has completed the upper half of the wall. The laid-out wall doesn’t seem to have been…