Giant
Wade's Handful
One angry scoop made a valley.
See it clearly
- What's there
- A vast green bowl in the moors
- Legend from
- North York Moors tradition
- Best time
- Late summer (heather)
- Tone
- Wry
In a rage, Wade the Giant scooped a handful of earth to hurl at his wife. The hole remains.
The Hole of Horcum is a huge natural amphitheatre on the North York Moors, about 400 feet deep and more than half a mile across, sometimes called the Devil's Punchbowl. The best-known legend says it was formed when Wade the Giant scooped up a handful of earth to throw at his wife during an argument. Wikipedia's Wade page adds that Wade and his wife Bell threw a hammer to and fro over the hills while building Mulgrave and Pickering castles, and that the road called Wade's Causeway was built the same way. In fact, says the railway's walk leaflet, the hollow was made by spring-sapping over thousands of years.