Balancing the Arts with Technology

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Monday 2 April 2007
:: Malham, England - Yorkshire::

After the failed attempt at meeting the Queen of the Fairies, and visions of "the elders at Avebury" our adventure party continued on with their journey. Not too far up from Janet's Foss is a humungous valley with gigantic cliff and rock walls on both sides leading up to two sets of waterfalls and sheer scrambles to have to rock climb up. The trail appeared to vanish. This magnificent view our explorers looked over is one of the famous shots in "The Dark Crystal". Sir Thomas Leaf of course just jumped from stone to stone up the river to the sheer rocks from which the waterfall tumbles and started to scramble up, especially after he saw another traveller do the same thing. Sir Ingo the Great and Lady Vanessa of Rhine - took a while to 'ponder' this end or continuing of the trail - with not much hope about whether Sir Thomas Leaf was right in where he was going. Halfway up, Sir Leaf motioned for the party to follow, and eventually Sir Ingo climbed up the scramble to meet him. Lady Vanessa however, had second thoughts, and shook her head "no" and said she was not going up. The other traveller, who made his way down (something our brave knights were no longer brave about the concept of going back down) to retrieve his dog he tied down below, talked Lady Vanessa into taking the climb, showing her where to step and climb. The knights were very relieved they did not have to climb down the treacherous scramble. The falls and the scar was incredibly beautiful .... after the scramble, a very well constructed piled rock stairs led up and up and finely up to pasture where the adventures stopped for second breakfast and to catch their breath.

"no one wants to go down ..."
Sir Ingo the Great starting his
climb up the scramble

Sir Thomas Leaf
on the path to Gordale Scar

Gordale Scar

Gordale Scar
:: Malham, (Yorkshire Dales) - England ::
A great limestone gorge that is some 400 ft (150 m deep) representing a spectacular feature of the Craven Fault and may have been part of a collapsed cavern. It is
"Approximately 2 miles east of the Village of Malham one can see a line of scars marking the scarp of the Middle Craven Fault that is broken by a narrow, deep rift called Gordale. It looks like a triangular-shaped flat piece of land bordered by limestone cliffs given the name "Gordale" from the Norse name "gore" or "geir" for an angular piece of land that is descriptive of this pasture. Overhanging walls of limestone rise sheer up for 45 m, barely 9 m apart at the base with absence of sunlight, cold winds funnelling out, and constant drops of water from above that add to the drama of the scene - at the ravine's end - high up - Gordale Beck plunges through a hole and then divides into two waterfalls covered over great masses of tufa, some of which is beautifully banded. History dictates that this part of Gordale represents a collapsed system of underground caverns and passages and the hole where the water initially plunges is all that is left of the collapsed Gordale Cave. " (-http://www.abdn.ac.uk/malham/classic_walk.hti) The scar is the subject of many films, paintings, and stories ... most notably "The Dark Crystal" and the painting "Gordale Scar" (1816) in the Tait Britain Museum of London. More information can be found at: http://www.malhamdale.com/gordalescar.htm

Gordale Beck

up the ancient stone steps

Our adventurers made their climb up and after second breakfast took in the awe of the scenery then continued their way along the plateau and across the sheep pastures. Past many large cairns along the top, following stone walls, and over many crossings. They were in search of the Roman Camp. The Roman Camp was to the East across Gordale Beck (stream) to a 8 ha Roman marching camp which displays the earthwork remains of a temporary camp amongst dry rough grassland. The defences of the camp, which faces N, consist of a rampart with an outer ditch enclosing an area of nearly 8.1 ha. There are four gates, each with an internal clavicula. The remains are in relatively good condition; such damage as there has been to the defences has resulted from the traffic along the green track of Mastiles Lane which almost bisects the camp immediately N of the E to W wall. Evidently there were problems with the original setting out of the camp which is not a perfect rectangle: the N side is 8 m shorter than the S, and the E side is 4 m longer than the W. The NE corner is a right angle but the E rampart veers outwards by up to 6m at the SE corner, the angle of which is thus slightly acute. The E end of the S side also curves inwards off the general line of this side. These misalignments are probably due to the gently undulating topography. The four corners of the camp are not all inter-visible, either from each other or from a central point. As sites and signs tell ... our adventuring party did not wander in the right direction and passed right by it on their journey to Malham Tarn.