In modern times, as an artificial flood relief channel, much of the flow of the River Derwent (which drains a large area of the North York Moors) has been diverted, about 10 kilometers upstream of West Ayton, before it reaches the plain of the Vale of Pickering, east into a new channel called the Sea Cut along a previously dry side valley (probably a glacial overflow channel) and into the existing Scalby Beck's course through Scalby, North Yorkshire to the North Sea.