| The Yorkshire Dales National Park |
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InformationThe Yorkshire Dales National Park is an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB). Its true beauty is best appreciated by leaving the roads and taking the footpaths through its meadows and over its high fells. The YDNP covers many different types of locations ranging from peaceful farming country in the valleys to the rugged, windswept high fells of Ingleborough, Whernside and Penyghent. There is also much evidence of its industrial past from the impressive Ribblehead Viaduct and other features of the Settle to Carlisle Railway to the more seldom seen remains of the lead mining industry in remote moorland locations.Some of the most easily recognisable features of the Yorkshire Dales are its drystone walls. They run along valleys, climb impossibly steep fell sides, mark the lines of ridges and often converge at summits. They also form a crazy pavement pattern around villages. Most of these walls were built in the late 18th and early 19th Century, when vast areas of land were enclosed by Act of Parliament. Drystone walling is a skilled job and approx 1 ton of stones are needed to construct 1 square yard of wall. It was a job for the warmer months of the year as the cold winds, driving rain and snow made the work too difficult. Only a very small proportion of the Yorkshire Dales are regularly ploughed and the farming is usually pastoral. About 1/3 of the farms concentrate on dairy farming, especially those in the valleys. The higher hill farms, which have to put up with much harsher conditions, are mainly sheep farms. Some farms keep both sheep and cattle. In a typical summer the Yorkshire Dales will have at least ½ million ewes and lambs and about 75,000 cattle and calves. One of the most common breeds of sheep in the Dales is the Swaledale, which is one of Britain’s toughest sheep. Lambing usually tales place in April and as soon as the lambs are old enough the ewes and lambs go back onto the fells. They stay on the fells over the winter and are brought back to the farms again in Spring for the ewes to have their lambs. Dairy herds, usually Friesians and Northern Dairy Shorthorn, are fed on the best pasture in summer. During winter they are kept in shippons and fed on hay and silage. The numerous old field barns, used for over-wintering the cattle, a familiar sight in many of the dales.
Lead mining mainly occurred in 2 areas of the Yorkshire Dales, the Swaledale area between Keld and Marrick and moors between Wharfedale and Nidderdale. There is evidence that lead mining has taken place here since at least the 2nd Century AD. The lead mining industry came into its own during the 16th Century and reached its peak towards the end of the 18th Century and start of the 19th Century. Most mining had stopped by 1885 due to the escalating costs of extraction and cheaper sources of lead from abroad. A common feature of mining areas are hushes – deep gullies that were made when the miners were looking for new veins. The miners would dam a stream and use the power of the released water to strip away the top soil so that they could easily examine the ground below for lead ore. The levels and old mining buildings can still be seen on the moors above Swaledale and Wharfedale. Some have even been turned into an open museum, with information boards explaining the processes that used to occur there.
Recommended Walk Crummackdale |
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