Spending a few days with my wife and friends in the delightful village of Dent meant the chance to match a love of walking with another passion for railway photography on a challenging 10-mile walk from England’s highest station to equally remote Ribblehead.
While those at Wimbledon and in much of the south endured cold and rain, it was a case of warm sunshine in the Yorkshire Dales that made for near perfect walking conditions on Wednesday, 30 June 2021, and the chance for some panoramic photography of scenery and passing trains.
Dent station (1,150ft above sea level) is a wonderfully remote spot, with a listed station building in private ownership. It is almost five miles from the village and might more accurately be called Dent Parkway (but for the rather limited parking), or Cowgill for Dent, to reflect the hamlet just below the station.
A bus service links village and station on Saturdays only, otherwise it’s a 20 minute drive or two hour walk.
Both Dent and Ribblehead stations were closed to regular passenger traffic on 4 May 1970, along with most other intermediate stations, but having survived for use by the seasonal Dalesman services, were fully re-opened on 14 July 1986 and are now served by almost all the Leeds-Carlisle services that operate at roughly two-hourly intervals.
Following a walk published by the Yorkshire Dales National Park (link below) we set out from Dent station on a route that would take us past the impressive Arten Gill Viaduct then on to the northern portal of the 1.5 mile long Blea Moor Tunnel, before a gruelling 500ft ascent over the top of the tunnel.
On a fine day this is a pleasant walk that takes around 4½ hours, beginning with a steady mile-long ascent on the road leading north from Dent station then continuing right along a good a level track for a couple of miles, before another sharp right turn and a descent alongside Artengill Beck towards and under Arten Gill Viaduct.
After a turn left along a quiet road that runs alongside a near dried-up river bed, there is then a very challenging climb from close to the north portal of Blea Moor Tunnel onto Blea Moor, with the 500ft ascent in just three-quarters of a mile as you head directly above the tunnel to tunnel shaft No. 3.
From here there are fine views of Whernside to your right and Ingleborough straight ahead as the path gradually levels off, before descending down past tunnel shafts no. 2 and 1, then taking you on the north side of the railway, and behind England’s remotest signal box on a wide track running close to England’s finest railway viaduct and on to the Station Inn at Ribblehead
The 11-arch Arten Gill Viaduct, one of numerous similar structures along the S&C is 117ft high and 220 yards long. It was constructed using a stone called Dent marble, a dark limestone that is quarried locally and a renowned source of fossils.
Just to its south stands the slightly smaller 10-arch Dent Head Viaduct, which can be seen in the distance from Dent station, stands 100ft high, is 199 yards long and was also built from blocks of Dent marble.
Blea Moor is the longest tunnel on the S&C and was completed by the Midland Railway in 1875 after a four year construction period that involved the sinking of a total of seven shafts from the moor, of which four were filled in, to leave the three that survive to this day and which you will pass on the walk from Dent Station to Ribblehead.
Until the re-start of the popular and seasonal Staycation Express charter services from Carlisle to Skipton (two return trains daily from 18 July) passenger services comprise two and three-car Northern Rail Class 158-operated services, which seem pretty well patronised and even offer a buffet trolley service.
Freight traffic on the S&C is somewhat patchy these days, but 30 June proved pretty busy, with my walk giving me the chance to photograph GBRf 66704 crossing Arten Gill Viaduct with cement tanks bound for Clitheroe.
Later, while enjoying a pint of Black Sheep Bitter in the Station Inn’s garden there was the chance to photograph DRS 66430 passing with a short southbound freight to Crewe, closely followed by Colas Rail 70810 on the regular working of logs from Carlisle to Chirk.
The Station Inn stands opposite the approach to Ribblehead station and is the perfect place to rehydrate and sample some fine food and ale while watching trains crossing the famous viaduct as you wait to make your 9-minute return journey back to Dent Station.
Full details and a map of the walk can be found here: https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2020/06/linear-walk-dent-to-ribblehead.pdf
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