CHAPTER 8: The Greta Headwaters

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132 Chapter 8: The Greta Headwaters it says on its roof, that is, caves – to be precise, the White Scar Caves. By the time Chapel Beck crosses the footpath from Beezleys it is wide and docile enough to require nearly fifty stepping-stones to cross. But it is only girding its loins for a tumultuous fall through Baxenghyll Gorge, including impressive cascades at Beezley Falls, Rival Falls and Snow Falls, between which the water lies black-brown in deep pools. The glen is a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of its geology and associated flora. It is also designated an Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland, ancient in this context being defined as pre-1600. Ancient woodland is scarce locally because of grazing but much of this glen is inaccessible to sheep or cattle, enabling oak and birch, with occasional hazel, holly and rowan, to flourish on the acidic soils that overlie the Silurian slate. The woodlands are also important for their mosses and liverworts, which thrive in dark gullies, and ground plants such as wood rush, dog’s mercury and wild garlic. The path alongside the falls provides views of several disused slate quarries, while from high to the east the stone-crushing noise of Skirwith Quarry may well intrude. This quarry continues to mine the Ingleton Granite previously mined upstream. As Chapel Beck emerges from the wooded glen it passes through the remains of Mealbank Quarry. Beezley Falls White Scar Caves are the longest show caves in England. They were discovered in 1923 when two Cambridge students, Christopher Long and John Churchill, investigated Playfair’s Cave, then thought to lead only a short distance. They had previously explored the Cheddar Gorge in Somerset and Stump Cross Cavern near Harrogate and, having concluded that there was money to be made from developing a show cave, had come to Ingleborough with that specific intention. So, wearing, according to the Yorkshire Post, an outfit that “consisted of all-leather clothes, thoroughly treated with dubbin; a helmet, with three candles and an electric lamp, served by a battery and switch attached to their belts; rock-climbing boots and a plentiful application of vaseline to such parts of their body as were exposed” (that is, most of them), Long and Churchill ventured in. They found a way beyond a pool and after crawling 200m reached the first waterfall of the cave’s main stream. Subsequently they explored upstream, passing many fine formations, now bearing prosaic names such as the Sword of Damocles and the Devil’s Tongue, as far as the lakes now bypassed by the Bagshaw Tunnel. Unfortunately, they were not rewarded for this endeavour because Long, a manic depressive, died of a drug overdose in 1924 and Churchill was unable to raise sufficient funds to continue the development of the cave. The cave was eventually opened to the public in 1925, with the first manager, Tom Greenwood, adding further galleries and passages in the 1930s. In 1971 the massive 200,000-year-old Battlefield Cavern, 100m long and 30m high with thousands of delicate stalactites and undisturbed prehistoric mud pools, was discovered and this now forms the climax of the present tour, 1.5km and 90 minutes from the entrance. It contains probably the thickest coal seam within an English limestone sequence, and the sediments are rich in fossils yet to be fully understood. The quarry also has the ruins of England’s first Hoffmann kiln, which operated from 1864 to 1909. This kiln had a literally revolutionary design, whereby material was burned in a continuous horizontal loop, rather than tipped into a vertical furnace. On the outskirts of Ingleton, Chapel Beck passes an outdoor swimming pool that a plaque proudly informs us has been ranked the 52 nd such pool in the world. Just before the viaduct for the old Lowgill-Clapham line Chapel Beck is joined by Kingsdale Beck to form the River Greta. This is Chapter 8 of The Land of the Lune (2nd edition), http://www.drakkar.co.uk/landofthelune.html, Copyright © 2010 John Self
Kingsdale Beck Most visitors to Kingsdale intend to go through or under it, which is less than it deserves. They are either using the road between Dent and Thorntonin-Lonsdale or they are aiming to tackle the potholes arrayed along the sides of Kingsdale. Kingsdale is a fine upland valley, flanked by Whernside to the east and Great Coum and Gragareth to the west, with its limestone scars below the millstone grit tops providing superb views. It can be lonely and wild but also, on sunny summer days, balmy and serene. It would perhaps have its deserved appeal to tourists if it reverted to its full name of Vikingsdale – some of the names here (Yordas, Braida Garth) are of Norse origin, as indeed are ‘beck’ and ‘dale’. The valley runs straight from north to south for 7km with only 1½ farmsteads in it – Braida Garth and Kingsdale Head. The other ½ of the latter is a holiday cottage. The head of Kingsdale is 3km above Kingsdale Keld Head Scar in Kingsdale Kingsdale Beck 133 Head, where the road between Whernside and High Pike begins to drop down steeply to Dentdale. Kingsdale Beck gathers off the peaty slopes of Great Coum and Whernside but, like Barbon Beck to the north, comes and goes a few times. It has usually gone between Kingsdale Head and Keld Head. This is convenient for it means we can follow the new ‘conservation path’ across the beck to investigate the Apronfull of Stones. This 20m-diameter ring of stones, with gaps to the east and west (the latter probably from beck erosion), is a Bronze Age burial cairn. Directly opposite is Yordas Cave, which was one of the first tourist attractions in the Dales. The aforementioned Reverend Hutton said of Yordas Cave: “Having never been in a cave before, a thousand ideas … were excited in my imagination on my entrance into this gloomy cavern … As we advanced ... and the gloom and the horror increased, the den of Cacus, and the cave of Poliphemus came into my mind [sadly, our knowledge of Greek mythology is not what it was] … This is Chapter 8 of The Land of the Lune (2nd edition), http://www.drakkar.co.uk/landofthelune.html, Copyright © 2010 John Self
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CHAPTER 8: The Greta Headwaters

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