The other week I took some time off work and spent a couple of days in the Yorkshire Wolds - a beautiful landscape right on my doorstep that I'd wanted to explore for some time. My plan was to find the source of the Gypsey Race, documented elsewhere, and an object of personal fascination. Quote:

"Throughout human history, 'Gypsey' springs and streams have fascinated and beguiled many who have come into contact with them. Found all over the Wolds area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, they are watercourses which have the property of being intermittent and irregular. This is believed to be due to a siphon action occurring in underground reservoirs. It is supposed that the water builds up gradually until a rainstorm, perhaps miles away from the stream bed, triggers a siphon action and releases a deluge. This unexpected gift of water must have made a considerable impression upon any witness in a region where free-flowing water is otherwise rare.

The best-known of these Gypsey streams is the Gypsey Race, which winds its way through the Great Wolds Valley to the North Sea at Bridlington. During the Neolithic period, this stream was the focus of an extensive ritual landscape.

The source of the legend-haunted watercourse is a quiet but numinous spring surrounded by a thicket of bushes and nettles.It is located at the side of a ploughed field near the edge of the tranquil Wolds village of Wharram-le Street."

So I pretty much found the source without too much bother - and I was pleased to see that the stream was in full flow. Then I sauntered down to Duggleby Howe and saw a hare close-up. Coolio.