Grassington mines walk

I took a walk around Grassington to look at the lead mine workings around Hebden Gill, Yarnbury and Conistone Moor. It's odd to think that the landscape once shook with the noise of heavy, extractive industry. There were butterflies still around in the lower part of the valley.


This may be a "hush", where dammed water was released to strip away the topsoil to reveal the ore seams beneath.

Today just the ghosts of the workings remain as a reminder of the hard work endured by our ancestors.

These are the remains of an undershot water wheel used to drive crushing machinery (the hole for the axle can be seen in the stonework, centre and the channel for the water, just made out to the left).

Tenant miners could rent a thirty yard stretch of a seam working to extract the ore from shallow bell pits on the surface.

While walking up Mossdale (scene of the tragic Mossdale trip of 1967) towards Conistone Moor, I saw a ring-tailed Hen Harrier flying south east.

Mining spoil on Conistone Moor.