Low Bridedtones, Sleights Moor
More Articles in the Grosmont to Robin Hood's Bay subsection
Low Bridestones, looking across Sheep House Rigg on Sleights Moor
Low Bridestones, Sleights Moor, Coast to Coast
Coast to Coast walkers leaving Grosmont village are met with a steep road climb up Fairhead Lane to Sleights Moor. This is no ordinary moor. Almost immediately upon crossing the cattle grid marking the beginning of the moor, there is a rough track leading off to the south across the rough moorland grasses of Sheep House Rigg. This is the best route to the Low Bridestones, only 400 yards distant, and which are located about 200 yards to the east side of the track. Some of the Bridestones become visible after only a score of paces. The main track across Sleights Moor leads, after only 300 yards, to the nearby High Bridestones and the North and South Flat Howes. At the exit to the Moor is Pen Howes, 1 mile east from the Low Bridestones.
Low Bridestones Sleights Moor
The Low Bridestones are on that part of Sleights Moor known as Sheep House Rigg. Further down the gentle south west slope you will see Spa Well and Spa Hill Slack. The Low Bridestones are a scheduled Bronze Age monument listed with Historic England.
Low Bridestones Distant View
You can gaze in all directions, once you reach the Low Bridestones and see many more. The ground is quite wet and springy and many of the Low Bridestones now lay recumbent. The grass is quite high and hides the recumbent Stones quite successfully.
Low Bridestone Sleights Moor
These Stones date to the Bronze Age and are positioned in such a way that their purpose is speculative. Some of them seem to line up and others do not, particularly when taking account of those laying recumbent in the grass. There is a line of thought that they may once have been part of a double row or that they were simply a part of a prehistoric field system. The largest is about 1 metre high and there are scores of them.
Low Bridestone Close Up
The underlyiing bedrock on Sleights Moor consists of Jurassic shales, sandstone and limestone. In fact, the High Bridestones, a little further east, are located atop a limestone pavement, currently overcome with heather. The Low Bridestones rise from a reedy area of moorland on the north west plateau of Sleights Moor only 100 yards south of Fairhead Lane. A little south of the Stones is Spa Hill Slack and Spa Well. Spa Hill Slack mops up the water seeping down Spa hill from the Low Bride Stones, and steers it to Lythe Beck which flows directly to the Murk Esk near Grosmont.
Evening Sky above Grosmont
There is a captivating view From the Low Bride Stones, looking down in the evening twilight towards the Murk Esk and River Esk Valleys. The golden hued clouds blend perfectly with the rising smoke of a farmyard fire and the condensing evening mist.
Coast to Coast Trail Guide
Hiking the Coast to Coast
"Hiking the Coast to Coast" is a digitally enhanced eBook available from Apple Books for all people who have either a Mac, an iPhone or an iPad, and is designed to accompany you on your walk of the Coast to Coast path. The trail guide contains Ordnance Survey maps and other advanced mapping features, step by step directions, hundreds of colour photographs, details of the route, its conditions in different weather and research snippets relating to places of interest along the way.
