Tucked Away in Secluded Lothersdale

Set deep in the rolling countryside to the west of Keighley, Lothersdale is a village of gritstone houses and mill buildings - typical of the small settlements that grew up in the late 18th and early 19th centuries along the river valleys of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The mill dam that you will cross as you enter the village is characteristic of the scale of the industrial enterprise undertaken then - sufficient to employ local people, but too small to fight against the expanding trade of its larger neighbours. Farming and industry had always co-existed here, and today Lothersdale relies on agriculture and tourism - it is a popular stop on the Pennine Way - as well as its role as a base for those who work in the West Yorkshire conurbation.

The Lothersdale district is of particular interest to geologists. As part of the Ribblesdale Fold Belt, there is a notable anticline at Lothersdale, where the limestone has been tilted by the forces of the earth so that it dips significantly - at angles of anything from 20 to 90 degrees from the horizontal. This dramatic effect is best studied at Raygill Quarry, to the west of the village, where the crest of the anticline is exposed in the rock faces. Between 1876 and 1895 over 35,000 tons of barytes was mined at Raygill. This valuable mineral is a sulphate of barium, which is used in drilling processes, as well as in industrial coatings and linings. The quarrying of the fine carboniferous limestone here continued well into the 20th century, but has now ceased, and the flooded quarry workings have been transformed into a successful trout fishery. Raygill was also the site of a discovery, in 1880, of the bones and teeth of several mammals that died in fissures in the rocks in the period between the ice ages. They included remains of mammoth, rhinoceros, lions, bear, bison and hyena. The bones were taken to Leeds City Museum, where they were damaged by bombing during the Second World War.

The Society of Friends has had a long association with Lothersdale. This once-remote valley provided a haven for Quakers in the persecutions of the 17th century. They built a meeting house here in 1723 and enlarged it in 1799. It had a gallery with unusually designed hatches that could close to create a separate room. The meeting house closed in 1959. In 1800 the Lothersdale Quakers opened one of the earliest Sunday schools anywhere in the world, 'for the preservation of the youth of both sexes, and for their instruction in useful learning.'

While you're there

The far-reaching views from the trig point near the end of the walk are matched in splendour by those from the top of Lund's Tower near Cowling, 3 miles (4.8km) south east of Lothersdale. Built either to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, or the coming of age of Miss Ethel Lund of Malsis Hall down in the valley (or quite possibly both), it shares its ridge with an obelisk, Wainman's Pinnacle, while ½ mile (800m) to the south is the 1,000 ton Hitching Stone, said (though who can tell?) to be Yorkshire's largest boulder.

What to look for

Like many places in the area, Lothersdale has close connections with the Brontës - Haworth is less than 8 miles (12.9km) away. At a house called Stone Gappe (private) on the hillside ½ mile (800m) east of Lothersdale, Charlotte Brontë was employed as a governess by the Sidgwick family. She had just left her old school, Roe Head, where she had taught for nearly three years. She was not happy in her employment at Stone Gappe, and left after less than three months there. Like many of Charlotte's early experiences, her time at Stone Gappe was used in her novels; the house appears in the first four chapters of Jane Eyre as Gateshead Hall, scene of Jane's imprisonment in the Red Room and from where she is taken to Lowood School.

Where to eat and drink

The Hare and Hounds in Lothersdale is on the route. It has beamed ceilings and real ale, and serves meals at lunchtime and in the evening. A pleasant beer garden with an aviary is ideal for children.