'Aview from the Hills' in Our Winter Issue, Alf Alderson Visited
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A VIEW FROM THE HILLS GREAT NORTH RIDGE In ‘A View from the Hills’ in our winter issue, Alf Alderson visited the southern part of the Pennines. Here Robert Yarham explores the landscape of the North Pennines, from the limestone country around Malham to the Cumbria–Northumberland border, in the company of a lifelong native of these hills. HE NORTH PENNINES Valley from High Cup Nick, that still were once an integral part of sets his heart racing: ‘Those are the best the industrialized might of two days’ walking on the Pennines, I Tthe North of England. Their think,’ he says. ‘The views are typical of rivers flowed down into the the area: you start in the Dry Valley and valleys to power mills and their heights walk through typical limestone scar were plundered for the rocks and scenery. Then you cross the wide-open minerals that fuelled industries and Fountains Fell and climb Pen-y-Ghent, built the towns and cities below. There where you can see across to Pendle are still fading signs of these activities Hill and over to the Lake District. on their slopes but today it is leisure That’s what a day’s walking in the that brings people to this stretch of Yorkshire Dales is all about.’ the Pennines. Heading north, you stride across Eric Whitaker has lived, worked and the fells and more bleak moors, once walked in the Pennines all his life and traversed by the packhorses and has led guided walks on the hills since pockmarked by abandoned 19th- 1972. Although his home and his century colliery shafts. Crossing the business, Pennine Walking, are now based in the South Pennines, it is the N stretch of hills and moorland from RIGHT The view from High Cup Nick, looking O S B I Malham northwards, all the way up to down the scree-lined glaciated ravine towards G M I J the magnificent view over the Eden the Eden Valley, in Cumbria. 4 LEFT Upper Teesdale is an important area for wild flowers, birds and animals, and is protected as part of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. BELOW LEFT The River Tees, running alongside the rock-strewn face of Falcon Clints. RIGHT The impressive 70ft-high waterfall at High Force on the River Tees, near Middleton-in- Teesdale, where the water has channelled its way through the limestone rock. east–west line of the A66, you head into the pastoral idylls of Teesdale and the wilder country of the Northern Pennines, meandering between County Durham to the east and Cumbria to the west. Upper Teesdale is another of Eric’s favourite parts of the Pennines: ‘It’s the most beautiful, dramatic scenery around there. I love the walk along the Tees. Many people associate Teesdale with industrial towns, like Middlesbrough or Darlington, but it’s not a bit like that.’ The River Tees flows towards the eastern coast and the industrial heartland but to get there it courses down from the high fells, down ravines like the narrow gorge at the foot of the cliffs of Falcon Clints, and over rocks and forces such as the dramatic High Force – the largest waterfall in the country – and Cauldron Snout. The Pennines wind their way up along the eastern edge of Cumbria at this point. Eric describes our walk from Cauldron Snout up to High Cup Nick: ‘You eventually get out on to quite dreary heather moor, still alongside the river, a tributary of the Tees, called Maize Beck. The beck gets smaller and smaller and eventually it becomes a trickle. Then you cross another half-mile of wild, dark, heather moorland, and suddenly you come to the edge of High Cup Nick. You’ve got these sheer cliffs in front of N you – you actually need to stop or you O S L I would fall off. The view looks right W N A down into the whole of the Eden I R D Valley, which is green and lush. If you A / don’t know it or expect it, it actually N O S B takes your breath away when you see I G M I it. It’s an amazing place.’ J 6 BEAUTIFUL BRITAIN / SUMMER 2007 There are more signs of human ABOVE Water now fills the pits at Bollihope, industry on the surrounding hills here. where mining industries once drilled into the This area was especially rich in lead ground for precious minerals. and, in addition to mining, the lead ABOVE RIGHT The bleak, open moors of Cross was brought to the surface using a Fell lie exposed to the easterly Helm Wind. particularly inventive approach, if one somewhat unsympathetic to the BELOW RIGHT From Cross Fell, the route wall – that they finally near their end, on these bleak high places, where landscape. The lead prospectors would of the Pennine Way diverts north-east, away but not before one last hurrah of hills. fierce winds whistle and torment those block a river to create a reservoir and from the true course of the North Pennines. The windy and bleak Cross Fell is brave, or foolish, enough to encounter then they broke the dam, to release England’s highest point outside the them. One of these, the so-called the water in a sudden torrent and High Cup Nick shares its geology Lake District. On clear days it is ‘Helm Wind’, whips across from the S I wash away any vegetation and surface with that great cross-country ridge possible to see south-west to the hills east of the country, where the cold L L I W soil.This revealed the minerals. Now, further north, Whin Sill, which forms of the Lakes and north to the Solway easterly air is warmed, rises up and E V A the days of lead extraction long gone, the basis of the line of Hadrian’s Wall, Firth and the southern uplands of drives over the fells into the Eden D / W E on reserves like Widdybank Fell, near whose stones were mined from the Scotland. Here, you can also find the Valley on the Pennines’ western side. I V N Dufton, a unique range of arctic flora, nearby rock. Both ridges are formed sources of three of northern England’s From here, the line of hills and fells O N I A surviving remnants from the last Ice from an exposed seam of igneous most important rivers: the Tyne, the continues north, across Hartside and T I R B Age, cling to their hillside habitat dolerite which runs across northern Tees and the Wear. Once known as Black Fell, gradually losing height. / N undisturbed and protected. (Whether Britain. It is here, as the Pennines ‘Fiends’ Fell’, Cross Fell was They pass the small market town O S B I they will survive the warmer winters approach the Newcastle–Carlisle gap – supposedly inhabited by demons. It is of Alston on their eastern side, G M I J now expected remains to be seen.) marked by the remains of the Roman easy to see why superstition held sway accompany the upper reaches of the 8 9 LEFT The fertile green pastures of the aptly- named Eden Valley, in Cumbria. BELOW A lonely cottage on the hillside at Black Fell, where the Pennines head north to their end near Hadrian’s Wall. moorland, the crags of grit and limestone, the mines and quarries, pastures, roads and rivers. As a result of industrialization and urbanization, paradoxically partly driven by the hills’ natural resources, many looked to the Pennines, which weave their way between the great cities of the north of England, to escape the urban nightmares of the industrial age. Enjoying the wilderness, as Eric Whitaker and his forebears have done, walking on the empty, desolate moors became a pastime, a release from the mechanized, processed world we had created. Now, with changes in climate affecting the wildlife of these places and with the growing dependence of our rural areas on tourism, perhaps we are entering a new phase of understanding and of partnership with them, as we learn to protect them. We helped to shape the Pennines and they, BB Y in return, have shaped us. M A L A / Y E N U M For further information about visiting the A H A River South Tyne and eventually, from environments are defined and North Pennines, you can contact North East R G / the northern side of Cold Fell, fall moulded by their relationships with England Tourist Information on 0906 T T E down across Tindale and Denton Fells the people who live amongst them, 6833000 (premium call rates apply) or visit B R O to the Cumbria–Northumberland visit them and work on them. In their website: www.visitnortheastengland.com. C L A border and the east–west line of Britain this is true of the whole length For information about the North Pennines V / W E Hadrian’s Wall. of the Pennines. The history of these Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty you I V N The Romans were just one of the uplands is our history: we are can contact the AONB Partnership on O N I A many peoples to leave their mark on inalienably linked to these wide open 01388 528801, or visit their website: T I R B the hills. Many landscapes and spaces, the high places of wild www.northpennines.org.uk.