Hole of Horcum, North Yorkshire Moors Week 43 1st March 2012
                 
The giant Wade picked up a clod of earth and hurled it at his wife Bell, making both the Hole of Horcum and Blakey Topping where it landed.

Well not really. Just water seeping through the ground until it met an impervious layer and flowed horizontally. Landslides and mud being washed away did the rest.

We'll walk along the ridge to our right, and return along the bottom of the valley.

 
We were just innocent passers by, seduced by sunshine, a footpath across open moor, and a nearby campsite.

The Bronze Age residents who created this (barely discernible) barrow had different reasons.

 
Part of Leversham Estate (which having been Ausified now sounds like a cue for a winery).

The heather is being burned in patches to encourage new heather to grow.

More importantly, it probably provides a better home for the grouse.

Which can then be shot.

Apparently its the game keeper that's doing the burning.

 
This is an Iron Age dyke from about 2000 years ago.

Not quite as elegant or extensive as the leats of Dartmoor. More like a boundary fence apparently.

 
Moors forever.

Just a pleasant walk.

 
We'll follow Braygate Lane into the Hole of Horcum. Dundale Griff is the wrong way.
 
Partway down into the hole.

Its really just a valley but with a name like Hole of Horcum who could resist!

 
Someone on the ridge above us testing the wind with his hang glider.
 
Just about to take off.
 
And just about to land. We watched the sail collapse.
 
And then our pilot set off carrying it all back up the hill.

Which happened to be where we were headed (a what went down must go up sort of track).

Apparently what was supposed to happen was for the hang glider to follow an elegant circuit returning the pilot to the ridge top.

Unfortunately the wind was in slightly the wrong direction.

 
Looking north east from the ridge top we could see RAF Fylingdales in the distance.
 
The modern day squew whiff pyramid is a phased array radar installation.

Instead of rotating the beam mechanically its direction is changed electronically.

Presumably much more flexible - as long as what one wants to look for isn't off to the side.

There are tv aerials for mobile homes which use the same principle, for both terrestrial and satellite reception.

I just hadn't expected to see one for radar, or quite so large.

 
Back at our campsite we basked in the sun for while.

Attached to a dairy farm. The farmer is contemplating spending GBP300,000 on a rotary milking machine so that he can spend less time in the milking shed and have happier cows with higher yields.

A far cry from the communal dairy herd we spotted in eastern Europe but ready to catch up with New Zealand.

 
Whitby, Yorkshire Week 43 3rd March 2012
 
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