Day Four

March 26, 2019

Magnificent desolation

The moors above Swaledale have been radically reworked by the hand of man, in places turned into an almost lunar landscape by the feverish pursuit of lead, chert and tin. It was another freezing night camped amidst the poisoned rubble, and I was slow to get going. Good riding when I did, though, racing round the contours on old mining tracks – and the more recent network of grouse shooting gravel roads bulldozed over the top of them.

Derelict smelting kilns by the track give some clue as to what happened here.

As I started my descent into Reeth, I could see my onward route rising steeply up the other side of the valley.

My onward route, rising steeply up Fremington Edge towards the skyline.

A pasty and sausage roll breakfast in Reeth, delayed gratification, then I was climbing again; steep but rideable tarmac segued into loose rock, and that was me off the bike and walking. Turned out well on the top, though, and the madcap downhill into Langthwaite is a killer. Sheltered from the wind, a lunchtime pint in front of the Red Lion was just what I needed before winching myself back uphill onto the high ground between Old Gang Beck and Gunnerside Gill.

If you really want to get a feel for the legacy of the lead mining industry in this part of Yorkshire, ride a bike over the plateau rising to the NW of Reeth. It's a blasted desert of a place: fields of grey rubble and slag, ruined buildings, deep hollows where peat was extracted, eroded gullies only partially re-vegetated in the 140 years since active mining and smelting ceased.

The ruins of Old Gang Mill, abandoned by the end of the Nineteenth Century.

Multiple flues used to run uphill from the smelting furnaces, to chimneys that vented the poisonous fumes into the strong winds howling across the moor.

An adit near Old Gang Mill; the stone pillars on the skyline were part of the frames used to dry locally cut peat, which was burnt during the lead smelting process.

I first rode past this abandoned stonebreaker 28 years ago. How do I know it's a stonebreaker...?

...because it says so on the side! Made in Leeds, built to last.

Two excellent articles on lead mining in Swaledale:

The Long Surrender.

Orewinners and Deadmen.

You're spoilt for choice on where to ride a mountain bike here. It's worth pointing out that this place, once a polluted, industrialised hellhole, is now a scheduled ancient monument held up as the epitome of peaceful countryside; somewhere you come to take the air and recharge your batteries...

Cruising through the spoil tips on the east side of Gunnerside Gill.

The Blakethwaite Smelting Mill, abandoned in 1878.

Standing behind the raised causeway in North Hush, looking across to Friarfold Hush.

Climbing up and away south from Blakethwaite Smelting Mill, I passed across the scarred hushing gullies and hammered downhill into Gunnerside. For reasons that now elude me, I'd decided to do this trip in a couple of phases, and that was the first one just about done. I could've made it to Kirkby Stephen for an evening train home, but a quiet riverside pitch at Keld Campsite proved too tempting, and I knocked out the remaining 18km early the next morning into a blustery headwind. It'd been a great journey so far, and I was looking forward to returning to finish it off.

Height gain: 1303m/4275ft

Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 221 km (137 miles)

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Scott AndersonTerrific journal, Pete. I’ve wanted to visit the Dales for a long time, and this strengthens the urge. We’re dedicated roadies, but really does look like country best seen by a mountain bike. Thanks so much for posting it here. I hope you’ll bring across some of your others.
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3 years ago

Pete JonesHi Scott. I converted the bike I used for that trip into a kind of gravel bike just prior to the lockdown - drop bars, fat semi slicks. Works really well, and would make a good Sales mile muncher.
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3 years ago