'Ribblehead Viaduct'

24 arches, 104 ft high, 440 yards long.

Location : Ingleton / Hawes / Dent
Map - Ordnance Survey - SD 759793

Aerial photo by Simon Ledingham.

Ribblehead viaduct is just over the border from Cumbria into North Yorkshire, but as the most impressive structure on the Settle-Carlisle Railway, it is included here.

Hundreds of railway builders ("navvies") lost their lives building the line, from a combination of accidents, fights, and smallpox outbreaks. In particular, building the Ribblehead (then Batty Moss) viaduct, with its 24 massive stone arches 104 feet (32 metres) above the moor, caused such loss of life that the railway paid for an expansion of the local graveyard.

Memorials along the line, especially those at St Mary's Church Outhgill and St Leonards' Church, Chapel-le-dale commemorate the lives of some of the men who died building the line.

Ribbblehead viaduct is just a short walk from Ribblehead station. About a mile north of the viaduct is Force Gill Aqueduct, carrying Force Gill over the railway. A footpath leads from Ribblehead viaduct over the aqueduct to Whernside.

On 22 July 2007 a special walk took place across the viaduct.

On Tuesday 19th December 2000, Railtrack chartered LMS Stanier designed Heavy Freight 8F 2-8-0 No. 48151 from Carnforth, which took a train of 20 hoppers from Hellifield to Ribblehead for loading, then forwarded them to Carlisle in weather described as "appalling." This trip was to mark the reopening of the Settle to Carlisle railway line after a major refurbishment.