North York Moors to Ravenscar

North York Moors to Ravenscar
(Click on the image to see it larger)

The North York Moors is a national park in North Yorkshire, England. The moors is one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom, covering an area of 1,436 km². It has a population of about 25,000. It became a National Park  in 1952.

The above image shows two types of landscape in the North York Moors: the sandstone and the coast.

Much of the landscape is the familiar poor acid soils which are formed by the slow erosion of sandstone and are deficient in nutrients. They are less permeable to water, impeding drainage and encouraging the formation of bogs. Sphagnum moss and cotton grass abound and as the cold acid waters allows little decomposition of organic material the dead sphagnum moss gradually accumulates to form peat, which raises the levels of the bogs and they dry out. Heather then invades the area. Large areas of the moors are now covered in heather, bilberries and grasses growing on thick layers of peat.

Sheep are a ubiquitous part of the moorland landscape. Their grazing helps to maintain the open wild landscape that is needed for many other plants and animals to thrive.