Variant Route Descriptions - A Northern Coast to Coast Walk: From St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay - page 169

during Tudor times. But the activity reached its peak during the late 18th and early
19th centuries, and most of the physical remains that are encountered on the walk are
relics of that time.
Just before reaching the ruins of Crackpot Hall, for example, the path crosses the line
of Old Field Hush, a grooved scouring of the hillside caused by the artificial damming
up of water above, which, when released, flushed surface debris and soil away to re-
veal much-prized minerals and ore, or at least the suggestion that a vein of ore might
be present. The Old Field Hush was worked from 1738 to 1846, during a time of much
squabbling between the Parkes brothers, owners of nearby Beldi Hill Mines, and Lord
Pomfret, whose mines were in Swinner Gill.
Continue on the track rising behind Crackpot Hall, and past buildings of a
former smithy. The view down the valley towards Muker is here quite ex-
hilarating, as the path becomes narrow and rocky, turning under the crum-
bling sandstone outcrops of Buzzard Scar and into the awesome gorge of
Swinner Gill.
SWINNER GILL
At the head of the gill, at the junction with Grain Gill, is a fine stone bridge, while across
the bridge are the ruins of Swinnergill Mines, with dressing floors and the decaying hulk
of the smelt mill. The mineral veins worked by the lead miners are especially numerous
on the north side of Swaledale. The veins run approximately W-E and NW-SE, so that
the four tributaries of the Swale, of which Swinner Gill is the first, cut across a complex
of veins allowing them to be discovered and worked. Swinner Gill well illustrates this,
and further evidence awaits in Gunnerside Gill, Hard Level Gill and Arkle Beck.
In the gorge to the left of Upper Swinner Gill lies Swinnergill Kirk, in reality a cave
where, during times of religious persecution, those of the Catholic faith would meet
and pray in secret. Quite why, having struggled so far into the wild heartland of these
rolling hillsides, the necessity would still be felt to seek out the seclusion of a cave, is
unclear, but it invests an otherwise bleak and inhospitable spot with a dash of much-
needed colour. Botanists will also find a diversion into the gill of interest, for its damp
atmosphere and wet rocks and ledges are home to a host of unusual flowers, ferns,
mosses and liverworts.
Beyond the ruins of the smelt mill the path climbs stiffly for a while along
the line of East Grain, the gradient easing just before the broad scar of a
shooters' track is encountered. Now follow the track to the left, climbing
easily to the highest point on the moor, just after a fence, and near a dis-
tinct branch to the left leading to the summit of lonely Rogan's Seat. As the
high point of this stretch is reached, there is a glimpse, right, of Moss Dam, a relic of the
mining days, now almost concealed by the ever-encroaching heather.