Summer Holiday 2023: Swaledale Part 3

Normally, I write my posts on walks fairly close to when we've actually done them and when the memory is at its freshest. But I'm continuing describing aspects of our North Yorkshire stay several months after we've returned home. And I'm rather enjoying doing it this way. It's giving me the opportunity to look back on the photographs I took at the time and relive the landscapes we walked through. Perhaps this is a better way of doing things?

This walk I'm about to describe is one of the iconic Swaledale routes - up Gunnerside Gill. A small valley branching off Swaledale into the moorland north of Gunnerside. It was the site of intensive lead mining in the 18th and 19th centuries and still contains much evidence of its industrial past. Just our sort of place for a walk and it was a cracker.

First of all though, perhaps I should explain some of the local terms for landscape, or topographical, features. The little valley we’re heading for in is a ‘gill’, which comes from the Norse word ‘gil’, meaning ravine or gully. The stream running through a gill is a beck, from the Norse ‘bekkr’. This one we'll be following is Gunnerside Beck. Look at any map of the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District, and you’ll find more Norse words. Examples include ‘foss’ or ‘force’ for waterfalls and ‘fell’ from ‘fjell’ meaning hill or mountain. Even the word ‘dale’, meaning valley, originates from an old Norse word, ‘dalr’. Norse people first settled in these uplands more than 1,100 years ago and they've certainly left their mark.

A straightforward route: follow the gill for a few miles, climb up a steep bit and then follow a track back to the starting point in Gunnerside. The elevation profile tells it all - up for 3.5 miles and then down for about the same distance. Overall, I would rate the walk as high moderate. Most of it is fairly easy, but there are some steep bits, a lot of undulations, rugged terrain, and some very thin trails with steep drops. Well worth doing.

A rather beguiling gate, offering an invitation to move into the woodland bordering the beck. I like these transitions from one phase to another.

Lots of water coming down the beck which as rocky a streambed that I've come across. I presume that the steep gradient of the flow means that anything small is quickly scoured away.

And in amongst the ferns, the footpath winds its way alongside the beck.

And we come to the first substantial remains of the lead mining industry that played such a key role in Swaledale’s history. I'm standing on what’s known as a dressing floor. Do you see those open-sided stone chambers up above? They’re known as bouse teams and that’s where the mined material was stored before being ‘dressed’. In this process, women and boys, some aged as young as nine, separated the valuable ore from the worthless waste. It was a very labour-intensive task and that’s one of the reasons why the mine owners used women and children – they were cheaper than men. Can you imagine how busy, noisy and dusty this place must’ve been back then? Dozens of people would’ve been toiling away beside the beck, smashing up the rocks by hand and sifting through it for the precious ores of lead. It was a very demanding physical process and the noxious lead would probably have poisoned many of those working here in one way or another. Lead poisoning is awful and is associated with abdominal problems, learning difficulties in children, memory loss, kidney disease, high blood pressure, reproductive issues and problems relating to the central nervous system. And this sort of exploitation is still going somewhere in the world.

Looking up from whence the beck flows. The steep slopes leading down there are composed almost entirely of rubble and spoil from the workings. This is part of the Bunton ‘hush’, where water would’ve been used to enable open-cast mining. As in most hushes, this one followed the line of an existing, natural streams. although a few hushes would’ve followed an entirely man-made water course,  In either case, a dam would’ve been built at the top of the slope and water released, either to expose the ore vein or to wash away debris as miners went to work with pick and shovel. The water’s still there and the exposed bedrock remains. There are hushes on the other side of the valley too – rocky ravines that cut into the hillside aren’t the result of natural processes. 

Water, water, everywhere. And this wasn't even a stream. Just overspill from the recent rains.

This photograph shows the two different methods of accessing the ore-bearing rock at Bunton Mine. This old adit entrance is the only visible sign on the surface of a level driven into the hillside to reach deeper veins of galena, the lead-bearing ore. The deep gash of rubble  in the hillside above is the hush, the result of water being dammed above the lead seam and released in a rush. The overlying debris would be washed away, exposing the ore-bearing rock, which could then be extracted at the surface with picks and chisels.

Looking downstream with the waste heaps prominent. The scale is quite amazing and compares with anything we've seen as a result of tin mining back home in Cornwall.

I think this photograph says it all! It was quite a slog to the highest point of around 1700 feet on the walk. To be fair, this relaxation was only momentary and Mrs P was soon back on her feet, raring to go again.

A rather dramatic sky over the moors.

A little more blue sky in this view. Give it a few more weeks and the heather will be in flower. Should be quite spectacular: shame we are going to be back home when it comes out.

Our walk was just a few days before the 'Glorious 12th August' when the moors would resound to the sound of gunshots blasting Black Grouse such as these out of the skies. And they call it 'sport'! 

Looking down over Gunnerside to the patchwork of fields and barns leading down to the Swale. Villages like this are rooted in the landscape and merge seamlessly with their surroundings. Shame that all urban developments couldn't achieve the same.

Right at the start/end of our walk looking up the beck from the bridge in Gunnerside.