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| The section from Garsdale to Ais Gill is undoubtedly the wildest and even in summer can be the bleakest section of the line. You can often drive up from Settle with beautiful blue skies and arrive at Ais Gill under an overcast sky. However, when the skies are blue up here - it's a wonderful place to be. | |
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Moorcock
Viaduct, also known as Dandry Mire Viaduct
OS grid reference SD 793923 The viaduct is 227 yards long with 12 arches and is 50 feet high. After leaving Garsdale, the line crosses Dandry Mire Viaduct. It was originally intended that an embankment would to be built at this location but because of considerable difficulties with advancing the embankment across the centre of the bog, a trench was cut to find a solid foundation, piers were built up and the viaduct constructed. |
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Moorcock
Bridge
OS grid reference SD 794925 After Dandry Mire, the line crosses the A684 by a high road bridge and then enters the Moorcock Tunnel, which is 98 yards long. The name Moorcock is derived from the nearby pub, the Moorcock Inn, which is a good place to go when waiting for trains to cross the lofty bridge. Mont Zion Methodist Chapel is just off the picture, to the right. |
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View
South towards Lunds Viaduct and Moorcock Tunnel from Grisedale crossing
OS grid reference SD791934 Immediately after Moorcock
Tunnel, the line crosses Lunds viaduct and then passes Grisedale Crossing
with cottages Nos.1 and 2 which are accessed by a gated crossing and footbridge.
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Lunds
Viaduct
OS grid reference SD 793933 The five arch viaduct is 103 yards long and attains a maximum height of 63 feet. The short Moorcock Tunnel is off to the left of picture. It was near this viaduct on Christmas Eve 1910 when the St Pancras to Glasgow express collided with a pair of light engines. The resulting impact ignited the coach gas-lighting system and resulted in a fire in which twelve people died. Some of the casualties were buried in a small churchyard at the nearby town of Hawes. |
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Grisedale
Crossing and Cottages
OS grid reference SD 791934 The footbridge here looks quite out of place against the bleak moorland. The 1886 metal plate bridge replaced an earlier wooden construction. The valley of Grisedale which lies beyond the cottages was featured in a television production "The Dale that Died", the story of an isolated community. However, demand for weekend cottages and a revival in the fortunes of farming in the dale has resulted in a significant re-population. |
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Shotlock
Hill Tunnel
OS grid reference SD 787944 A short tunnel of 106 yards in length, driven through glacial deposits. After Shotlock Hill the line makes its last climb to the summit. At the site of Ais Gill signal box the line reaches an altitude of 356 m (1,169 feet). Sadly, the signal box and refuge loops are no longer in place. The windswept Wild Boar Fell rises majestically on the west side of the valley to a height of 2,324 feet; on the eastern side lies Mallerstang Edge which reaches 2,227 feet.
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| Near to the site of Ais Gill signal box is Hell Gill, a deep valley with an impressive waterfall. To the north, the headwaters of the River Eden and the Mallerstang valley fall away and the scenery once again takes on a more pastoral air. | |
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