First Survey and Discovery
Strategy Today 4 of us set out for our first survey attempt on Park Moor in the southern region of Lyme, a National Trust property on the edge of the Peak District in the UK. These moors were drained about 200 years ago and with climate change and other influences, these drains are now too efficient at water removal contributing to moorland fires, loss of habitat and flooding. The aim of this exercise in dowsing (divining) is to understand the drainage system Lacking any historical maps to help us know where drains would be, the first thing we had to do was to decide an approach. Several large gullies cut through the moor and one possibility was that any land drains would drain into them in a fish-bone pattern. Taking this as a possible model, we would spread out to walk in a line parallel to a gully in the hope that we would come across side drains. First Moor Survey Results and Confusion We began walking parallel to the gully and almost immediately began to expe...