Hole of Horcum

One Sunday, a month or more ago we set out for a walk around the Hole of Horcum up on the North York Moors. The Hole is a hugh natural depression surrounded by heather moorland to the west and pasture and patches of woodland to the east and rich in archaeological remains. Our circular walk took us across the moorland around the edge of the hole down a steep and very deep "griff" and then along the crinklely course of Leavisham Beck before climbing up out of the Hole to the end. Being February it rained of course... and then some. So, unusually for me, no photos record our trek. This vexed me slightly as we sat steaming next to the radiator in a lovely cafe in Pickering but I resolved there was nevertheless a print in the experience. I am by training and profession a map maker of sorts, I create plans of archaeological features from air photos so I decided to turn to the air photos and historic maps for inspiration. For this print I've used the intriguing oak leaf shape of this geological anomaly as the basis and referenced some of the mapping conventions used by 19th century surveyors. The green shows the grassed sides of the Hole, the purple the heather and moorland with little bundles of bog cotton and flashes of green where last season's burning has stimulated new growth.  It was a struggle to overcome my slightly pedantic urge for an accurate spatial representation (as demanded by my day job )b ut I managed to override it in the end. Oh and I managed to ignore all the  amazing archaeology too!