The Land of the Lune - Drakkar Press

68 Chapter 4: Upper Rawtheydale
the Bendrigg Trust, a charity offering outdoor activities
for disabled people. Foggy Hill, however, is a tractor
outlet, judging by the score or more shining new in the
yard. By the road there is a paddock with a signpost
announcing “Quaker Burial Ground”. It is completely
empty (on the surface). This takes the Quaker’s unfussy
approach to burial close to its logical conclusion, which
it would reach if the signpost were removed.
A farm name of Streetside and one further north of
Street Farm and the name of Bluecaster will provoke
speculation that this is the line of a Roman road. As far
as I know, there is no evidence on the ground for this, but
on the other hand it is certain that the Romans had major
and minor roads, as we do, and it would be surprising if
they did not take a short cut through Rawtheydale to get
between their forts at Brough and Over Burrow.
On the fell opposite there’s a rougher track that goes
up to Sprintgill and Murthwaite, home of the Murthwaite
fell ponies, except that, being semi-wild in the Howgills,
they hardly have a home. Their owner, Thomas Capstick,
is a renowned photographer of fell ponies.
As Sally Beck makes its way to the Rawthey we
might pause to reflect on the significance of what we
have seen on Baugh Fell, Swarth Fell and Wild Boar
Fell. The craggy tops differ from the rounded hills of the
Howgills. They are of millstone grit, below which is a
layer of shale and sandstone above a limestone base. The
limestone gives rise to caves and potholes, which are
Icicles on the western slopes of Wild Boar Fell
absent from the Howgills. Clearly, the geology of Baugh
Fell, Swarth Fell and Wild Boar Fell is different to that
of the Howgills. As we concluded when we similarly
reflected at Orton, we must be on the line of a geological
fault. In fact, this is the line of one of Britain’s most well
known faults, the Dent Fault.
The Dent Fault is the most important geological feature
of the Loyne region. It runs north south for some 30km
roughly between the two Kirkbys (Stephen and Lonsdale),
splitting the northern half of Loyne in two. To the west are
the rounded Howgills of Silurian rock (about 420 million
years old); to the east are the horizontal limestone scars of
the Dales (some 100 million years younger).
The line of the Dent Fault is, of course, not a
hypothetical line like the equator that one might imagine
standing astride. It is a line of weakness in the earth’s
surface that, over a long period about 300 million years ago
and with tumultuous forces, caused the rocks to the west of
it to rise about 2km compared to the rocks to the east. It is
considered the best example in England of a reverse fault
(as opposed to a normal fault, where rocks move down).
In the eons afterwards the western rocks have been eroded
to roughly the same level as the eastern rocks. But along
the fault-line there were and remain complex distortions of
the rocks. This explains also the line of quarries along the
fault, as various exposed minerals were mined.
We will cross the line of the fault again later as we
follow the Clough River, the River Dee and Barbon Beck.
This is Chapter 4 of The Land of the Lune (2nd edition), http://www.drakkar.co.uk/landofthelune.html, Copyright © 2010 John Self