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Saunterings: Walking in North-West England
Saunterings is a set of reflections based upon walks around the counties of Cumbria, Lancashire and
North Yorkshire in North-West England
(as defined in the Preamble).
Here is a list of all Saunterings so far.
If you'd like to give a comment, correction or update (all are very welcome) or to
be notified by email when a new item is posted - please send an email to johnselfdrakkar@gmail.com.
216. The View from Smearsett Scar
What a perfect February morning! Hardly a cloud in the sky, a gentle breeze, only a touch of frost, and a view
up my favourite dale, Crummackdale.
Austwick Beck with Moughton in the distance
On this occasion we weren't walking north up Crummackdale. We were heading east. Crossing
Austwick Beck, we walked along Wood Lane and up on the path past Jop Ridding, with fine
views ahead of the hamlet of Wharfe nestled below Moughton and back across the dale to
Austwick and Robin Proctor’s Scar.
Wharfe below Moughton
We then walked south up a path beside Wharfe Wood and onto the limestone open access area, with
our first sight of Pen-y-ghent ahead. After a little detour when we misjudged where we were, we
clambered up to the highest point of this walk, the top of Smearsett Scar (363 metres).
It is a modest height but it affords marvellous views in all directions.
Smearsett Scar is – and here I cannot do better than quote Hannon (1989) –
“… probably the best vantage point for surveying Ribblesdale. Included are
Horton and Helwith Bridge backed by Plover Hill, Pen-y-ghent and Fountains Fell. Then come
Stainforth Scar and Settle’s shapely hills. To the south are the Happy Valley and the Celtic
Wall, both close at hand and contrasting with distant Pendle Hill. Moving westwards are the
Bowland Fells, and closer again we have Norber, Moughton, Ingleborough and the tip of Whernside.”
Impressive, eh? However, there is something missing from that description, and all other
descriptions that I have read of the view from Smearsett Scar – something that we have been
conditioned not to see or, at least, to pretend that we haven’t seen. It’s like “don’t mention
the war” in front of Germans.
Pen-y-ghent (central) and Fountains Fell (to the right) from Smearsett Scar
Ingleborough (to the left) from Smearsett Scar
Pendle (in the distance) and the Happy Valley (below) from Smearsett Scar. (It is
called the Happy Valley by everyone who knows it but not by the Ordnance Survey.
On a point of clarification, it is not the valley that is happy – it is the people
that walk along it. The sheep are probably happy too but it is hard to tell.)
It’s “don’t mention the quarries” in front of visitors to the Yorkshire Dales. Visitors come
to admire the dales and the hills – they don’t want to have their attention drawn to the
quarries. And those extolling the wonders of the Dales don’t want to mention the quarries either.
Quarries are clearly visible to the north of Smearsett Scar. Indeed,
on our way up we had already
heard the rumbles of trucks manoeuvring about in the quarries. I understand that the
highest quarry, Foredale Quarry, for limestone is no longer active but the lower quarries,
Arcow Quarry and Dry Rigg Quarry, for Silurian slate, are. The slate or gritstone is used
mainly for road-building. The activity in the quarries varies as the demand fluctuates
but there seems no prospect of these quarries becoming inactive in the near future. A
new railway siding has recently been added so that the rocks may be transported without
using thousands of trucks on the Dales roads. There is, I understand, an application to
extend the life of the quarries for a further ten years or so – an application that will
no doubt be approved.
Right: A zoomed in view of the quarries (from the Ingleborough photo above).
Our National Parks are not virgin wildernesses (as they might be thought to be in
the United States). They are administrative structures imposed upon active communities.
Very little of the landscape of the Yorkshire Dales could be considered wild or natural.
For a start, the ‘natural’ view from Smearsett Scar, say, 5,000 years ago would not be one
of green fields – it would be of forests of birch and oak up to the tree-line at about
600 metres, above which a few peaks might be seen. In fact, being below the tree-line,
we wouldn’t see much from Smearsett Scar at all.
The quarries, in particular, are, of course, man-made and some have been active
for centuries. Most of the Dales farms and barns were built with stone from small local quarries.
Today’s large-scale quarries have been active for so long that they might be considered
an integral part of the landscape. At the least, it must be accepted that they provide
local employment and help the local economy.
Nonetheless, the quarries are a problem for the National Park’s two key
objectives – to protect valued landscapes and to enable access to them. Quarries
literally destroy the landscape. Thousands of tons of it are transported away
every year. And active quarries are not a place for visitors. Still, the National
Park designation has probably had some effect. No new quarries have been approved
since 1950 and only a handful remain active: Arcow, Dry Rigg, Horton, Ingleton and Swinden (near Cracoe).
Today, we can see from Smearsett Scar that the quarries have blasted away
the Moughton mountainside, leaving ugly layered cliffs of exposed rock. The damage to
the environment is large-scale and irreversible. The quarries will eventually
end and the areas will be ‘restored’ but never to what they were. However,
some old quarries now have valued new roles, as nature reserves and recreational
areas, such as for fishing. Meanwhile, until the Arcow and Dry Rigg quarries are
no longer active, the descriptions of the view from Smearsett Scar make it clear
what parts of the landscape we are supposed to enjoy. So we did.
It wasn’t difficult because the quarries occupy only a tiny fraction of
the 360 degree view. And the sound, on this occasion, was no more than you might
hear from roadworks. It was easy to pretend that the quarries aren’t there.
Especially if you sit, as we did, facing south, basking in the sunshine, eating our sandwiches.
From Smearsett Scar to Pot Scar
Eventually we wandered west along the ridge to Pot Scar. The Yorkshire Dales doesn’t
have many ridge walks – certainly nothing like Striding Edge – but this one must be
as good as any. It is not a narrow ridge but it does afford extensive views both north
and south. I will mention, in case anyone unfamiliar with this ridge sets out to walk
along it, that there is a step-stile near the top of the wall halfway between Smearsett
Scar and Pot Scar. We missed it, because it was in shade, and walked further than
necessary down to a padlocked gate. Also, although the hamlet of Feizor can be seen
down south-west from Pot Scar, you have to walk some way north-west if you want
to safely reach the track down.
From Pot Scar to Smearsett Scar
We had chatted to three sets of people on this walk and they all said that we must call
in on Elaine's Tearooms in Feizor. They needn’t have told us this because we already had
it in our plan. Still, it’s good to know that the tearooms are fondly thought of by
everybody hereabouts. Suitably refreshed, we walked west along Hale Lane back to Austwick,
blessed that it was indeed a perfect day. Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned the quarries either.
Feizor and Pot Scar
Date: February 6th 2025
Start: SD769683, Austwick Bridge (Maps: OL2, OL41)
Route: E on Wood Lane, NE past Jop Ridding – ford – S, E, SE – Smearsett
Scar – W – Pot Scar – NW – track – S – Feizor – E on Hale Lane – Austwick Bridge
Distance: 7 miles; Ascent: 225 metres
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© John Self, Drakkar Press, 2018-
Top photo: Rainbow over Kisdon in Swaledale;
Bottom photo: Ullswater