The River Kyle is a small river in North Yorkshire, England. At just under 6 miles (9.7 km) long, it is one of the shortest classified main rivers in the country.
Course
The river is first called Kyle after the confluence of Carle Beck and Derrings Beck. From the confluence it flows south-east of the village of Tholthorpe, near Easingwold, past Flawith, Alne and Tollerton. At Linton-on-Ouse it turns south and joins the River Ouse just north of Newton-on-Ouse.[1] From source to mouth, the river extends to just 5.8 miles (9 km) in length.[2]
The Kyle is noted for its recurrent problems with pollution caused by agricultural effluent.[3] In 1978, the water from the river became polluted after a barn fire had been extinguished and the water used to douse the fire had found its way into the River Kyle. Some of the pollution was a paraquat based weedkiller which is lethal in high concentrations and for which there is no antidote. As the City of York took its water supply from the River Ouse, they had to close their river intakes for two weeks to allow the polluted water to be flushed downriver.[4]
The name of the river derives from the Brittonic*cǖl, meaning "narrow" (Welsh, Cornish and Bretoncul).[7][8] The place-name Alne possibly preserves an earlier alternative name for the river.[8]
Leisure
There are two Ordnance Survey Leisure Walking routes that cross the river near Tollerton.[9][10]
^Chrystal, Paul (2017). The Place Names of Yorkshire; Cities, Towns, Villages, Rivers and Dales, some Pubs too, in Praise of Yorkshire Ales (1 ed.). Catrine: Stenlake. p. 101. ISBN9781840337532.
