North Yorkshire Moors Rivers
The rivers in the North York Moors have an amazing range of characters: small becks babbling over moorland, swollen torrents thundering through deep wooded gorges, and slow waters quietly meandering through flat valleys. There are two main river catchments on the Moors which are located side of the central moorland watershed. The Esk catchment in the north and the upper tributaries of the Derwent catchment on the south are the two main area on the Yorkshire Moors. In addition, the Yorkshire Moors has becks on the western edge run into the Swale catchment, small becks along the east coast run straight out to the North Sea and the Leven in the northwest runs into the Tees.
Sections of river in the south of the Park can “dry up” in dry spells, disappearing through “swallow holes” in the limestone. Clear shallow water can soon turn to murky brown torrents. The Esk can rise to flood levels as it did in October/November 2000 flooding houses and sweeping away fences trees, even whole sections of stone walls. In 1930/31 the Esk flood was so great it swept away many of the road and rail bridges in the valley.