IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Dentgate Lane, BARNARD CASTLE, DL12 8RU

Looking upstream.

Looking south, with Dent Gate Cottage on the right.

Moss is a small green plant, rarely more than a few inches high, which grows anywhere not overshadowed by taller vegetation or perpetually dry. There are more than 600 species in the British Isles, growing on rocks and walls, in woodlands and on tree trunks and branches. They are important pioneers of rock surfaces, holding moisture in their leaves and building up humus in which the seeds of flowering plants can germinate. There are two alternating generations in the life cycle of moss. The plant itself carries male and female organs. After fertilisation, these produce a capsule. Stalk and capsule together form an asexual, spore-bearing generation. The spores produced are capable of germinating into a new plant. Mosses also reproduce vegetatively, by small pieces breaking off and growing into a new plant. As they are rootless and tend to get their nutrients from water running over or through them they are nearly always short.

It must be the time of year because as soon as you appear at a gate sheep rush over in the hope of being fed.

These sheep were either very content where they were, or were afraid of getting their feet wet, as they all seemed happy to remain on the far bank of the stream and not escape through the open gate on this side. That's probably a good thing, as the road here, at the bottom of steep hills either side, goes round a blind bend over the bridge which crosses the beck, so would not be a good place to encounter escapologist livestock.

Looking downstream. Sheep graze in the adjacent field and a tractor appears to drive down the stream to fill the hay rack.

Langley Beck flowing to the east from a minor road near to Dent Gate Cottage.

Looking northward.

Looking north west - a steep descent ahead.