Читать книгу Walking in the Yorkshire Dales: North and East. Howgills, Mallerstang, Swaledale, Wensleydale, Coverdale and Nidderdale онлайн

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That same rugged beauty and sense of isolation is shared by the upper reaches of Swaledale, whose tributary valleys splay out to probe the bare moorland openness of the Pennines. Lower down, a string of tiny villages all trace their origins to the wave of Norse settlement in the ninth and tenth centuries, interspersed with an almost continuous string of farmsteads. The flanking hillsides are richly veined with seams of lead ore, some of which were possibly worked during the Roman period. But it was during the industrialisation of the rest of the country that the industry peaked, and hardly any worthwhile deposit was left untapped. In consequence, there are few places where you cannot find evidence of this exploitation, but strangely this only adds another dimension to the appeal of exploring the area.

Semer Water in winter, Addlebrough in the background (Walk 33)

Until it was dismantled in 1964, Wensleydale too had its railway, which ran all the way to Garsdale Head, where it connected with the Settle–Carlisle line. Although it remained in existence for less than a century, the railway was a boon to both farming and a small textile industry by providing a ready conduit for export, as well as opening the valley to the early tourism of the Victorians.