Rylstone Project

Rylstone Parish is located in the southern part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The scenery here takes the form of an un-named and indistinct valley which opens out to Wharfedale in the north and to Skipton in the south. The valley is bounded by rough moorland and a craggy fell to the East (Rylstone Fell) and by a lower and more rounded moorland to the north west (Boss Moor).

 

These pages provide an overview of the development of the landscape which we see today. One article (Geology and Landscape Development) describes how Rylstone's landscape has been determined by the different rock types which form its foundations and their subsequent erosion, folding and faulting over eons of geological time. It then outlines how the bedrock has been sculptured and modified by the erosive and depositional effects of ice and water during and since the last ice age.  A second paper (Landscape and Land Use) provides an overview of man's influence on Rylstone's lands over the centuries, whilst a third piece (Water Usage and Sheep Dipping) focuses specifically on why and how the annual washing of sheep took place in parish streams. A further account (Mining and Quarrying) then discusses how people have made use of the natural mineral resources to hand in their local area.

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The following section offers a succession of visual images of Rylstone's developing land use and built environment through reproducing a series of Maps of Rylstone from the 16th to the 19th Century. (These maps can also be accessed by the button below). They show many names of ancient heritage and, therefore, the next paper sets out our best understanding of old Field and Place Names to be seen within Rylstone Parish.

 

We then focus on the township's Boundaries, and how they are marked. Here we provide highlights and photographs from the project team's walks through Rylstone's boundary terrains, during which we explored the many natural and man-made features to be found at, and seen from, its extremities. Lastly, we reprint one or two accounts from other people of their rambles around Rylstone, starting with A Walk Around Rylstone Cross. 

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