Week 2 on the Moor

Strategy

As with the first week, two teams of volunteers were to head out on the moors; the Tuesday team which included me were to follow one of the gullies all the way up the moor to see how far the stone built culvert extended and the Thursday team would visit Cluse Hay, an extension of the moorland to the west so see if the same patterns were repeated.

Tuesday - Eastern Moor

Two of us explored the clough which continued up the moor from the first culvert discovery concentrating on how far this primary culvert extended. The dowsing rods consistently predicted the line of the drain which did not always adhere to the centre of the gully. Though we did not attempt any excavations, we encountered a significant number of collapses revealing the stone culvert confirming the line and exposing the high volume water flow.
This primary drain was found to continue up to just below the summit of the moorland, further than expected.
The weather was foul and terrain difficult so no investigation of side channels was attempted.

Thursday - Cluse Hay 

A team of  4 of went out and walked the farthest 3 cloughs on the southern side of Cluse Hey but only one member of the team was able to achieve any relatively consistent results with dowsing.
The cloughs all contained reasonable quantities of open running water and boggy areas for much of their lower lengths. Conditions weren’t conducive to close inspection, but we couldn’t see any obvious signs of drains going into them.

Dowsing Experience

The pair dowsing on Tuesday experienced positive results with dowsing rods following the stone built primary culvert which is only about 12" below surface. I experienced consistent strong crosses whilst my colleague Sarah felt less sure feeling that her responses were more vague.

In the Thursday team of four I was aware that one has never experienced a reaction. Another member was experiencing positive crosses but I have no information as the the remaining two.