Bilsdale from Cold Moor

There is a scene from the movie ‘Shrek’ that I think of every time I come across a boulder where Donkey says to Shrek “I like that boulder. That is a nice boulder.” And I do like this boulder, it adds a point of interest in the drab browns of the winter moorland.

I am on Cold Moor and looking east across Bilsdale to Urra Moor, the highest point on the North York Moors at 454m asl. Half way up the slope on the far above the green pasture fields lies the hamlet of Urra while down in the dale a tree lined River Seph flows towards Helmsley. Urra is said to be derived from the Old English word horh meaning filth. Perhaps  there is some true in the local legend that William the Conqueror did indeed utter profanities after getting navigationally challenged in the valley.

Garfitt Gap

From Urra looking across upper Bilsdale. Garfitt Gap is the col between Cold Moor (Mount Vittoria) on the left and Wainstones on the right.

If a consortium of Victorian investors had had their way this scene would have been bisected by a railway which was proposed between Ingleby Greenhow and Helmsley. Plans were drawn up and a formal notice was placed in the London Gazette announcing the intention to apply to Parliament for permission. The route would have involved two tunnels under Clay Bank and Newgate Bank.