You may’t go to Settle with out travelling not less than one cease on the Settle-Carlisle railway line.
In spite of everything, it crosses a few of England’s most inhospitable (or inspirational, you select) panorama.
The practice trundles via tunnels and over the 24-arch Ribblehead Viaduct, passing waterfalls and caves, drystone-walled single-track roads wreathing amongst sheep-scattered fells and smaller paths main throughout lonely moors.
At intervals it stops at sensible red-and-cream-painted stations full with gasoline lamps, well-tended flower gardens, banks of cowslips and primroses.
However earlier than getting too carried away, let’s absorb Settle itself.
Stirring sight: Settle is on the scenic Settle-Carlisle railway line, which passes over the Ribblehead Viaduct (pictured)
Above, one among Settle’s many conventional cobbled streets
Though runners on the Three Peaks Problem (Whernside, Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent) could race via it, this can be a grand little place to spend a couple of days.
A rugged market city by the River Ribble and surrounded by limestone crags, it has a sturdy historical past of social reform. Among the many seventeenth and 18th Century homes that line the steep streets and lurk down alleys and round cobbled courtyards is the birthplace of Benjamin Waugh, founding father of the NSPCC. One other Grade II listed constructing was the house of Dr George Birkbeck, founding father of the Mechanics’ Institutes.
Then there’s the home Sir Edward Elgar stayed at when visiting his pal, doctor and fellow musician Dr Charles Buck. It’s mentioned the composer drew inspiration from Settle and the Dales for his Enigma Variations.
Clare Jenkins reveals that composer Sir Edward Elgar was a customer to the city
Victoria Corridor is the world’s oldest surviving music corridor, based in 1853
There’s a Social Membership, a Quaker Assembly Home, and the Victoria Corridor, the world’s oldest surviving music corridor (based 1853). With a glass-topped cover outdoors and painted drop curtain inside, it gives a wide-ranging programme of theatre, music and cinema, starting from Royal Opera Home screened productions of Madama Butterfly and Carmen, via ska punk to talks on Florence Nightingale.
The market has been held right here on Tuesdays since 1249, in a sq. dominated by the City Corridor and the seventeenth Century Shambles, whose six arches as soon as housed the city’s butchers however are actually given over to impartial retailers, amongst them the nice Limestone Books. Close by, The Folly homes an award-winning cafe and the Museum of North Craven Life. Right here you’ll be able to be taught in regards to the townspeople’s historic actions – from blacksmithing via cotton spinning to quarrying.
The place to remain: The Golden Lion in Duke Road is a seventeenth Century teaching inn with a wood-panelled bar, to not point out hearty meals and actual ales. B&B doubles from £130 (goldenlionsettle.co.uk).
A room at The Golden Lion, the place B&B doubles value from £130
