Moor House

Rough Sike frozen over in the snow

Today was round two of Moor House fieldwork this week. This time we did manage to get there despite the snow and even drove most of the way (when the snow is bad we usually abandon the car at a suitable place and walk the 4 miles there and then back). It was an amazingly beautiful day to be out there; not too windy (miracle!) and sunny with a covering of snow about a foot deep. Obviously that high up and with that much snow, it was cold though. The dry air temperature was 0.6 degrees C today so not too bad compared to other weeks we've been (one time it was -4.5 at about 11am) but the river was -0.6 degrees C.

Trout Beck and view towards the TSS

Walking up to the meteorological area in the snow

Moor House, by the way, is a National Nature Reserve (NNR) in the North Pennine uplands. Most of the area is peatland which is broken up by the occasional grassland, hay meadow and deciduous woodland. The source of the river Tees is at the head of the Trout Beck catchment, the river which runs through the NNR. My work involves collecting meteorological data as well as surface water and soil solution samples from Moor House on a weekly basis. Additional data are collected on vertebrate and invertebrate populations, though this begins later in the spring. I am also conducting my own research project on dissolved organic carbon in the Trout Beck river which will become my dissertation when I return to university next academic year.

Walking up to the old site of the Moor House

The snow creature I made

Moor House is undeniably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been; the fact that it's so cold and a bitch to travel to just makes me forget it sometimes.

H x