A Cut Above

After tea and cake in one of the splendid coffee houses in Pateley bridge why not take the road out to Skipton and visit The Coldstones Cut. As you park in the Toft Gate car park signposted there is little to tell you what is ahead. A distant low mechanical noise, with the wind in  the right direction perhaps, is all you might hear.

Following the sign you come to Toft Gate Kiln where lime was smelted from 1700 or so and taken by cart to Pateley Bridge railway. Little sign of that heat and dust now but a 5 mile walk from here will take you down to the lead mines too for a little industrial heritage tour. Not on this day though as it was just too hot - at the end of September would you believe!!!

Toft Gate Lime Kiln Remains

Go up the hill (rises around 40 metres in 500 so quite steep) and you come to the understated entrance of the Coldstones Cut. Looks like an inner city street or alley combined with yellow parking lines and bollards. In deference to the usual health and safety priorities there is more emphasis on warning you about the untreated paths in winter, climbing on walls etc rather than definitiive information boards.

I`ll have to return at a different time when the sun is less bright but these give an idea of the impressive stone cutting and construction of the Cuts.

When you follow straight through to the lower viewing platform you see what is beyond. A huge working quarry that you never knew was there still producing lime but more concentrated on the excavation of high quality stone used elsewhere and in the construction of this iconic structure that has been made to blend into the beautiful open countryside. A ride over this in a plane or balloon would be fantastic but don`t get me started on balloon rides!

 Going back and through one of the side cuts takes you to the upper viewing platforms where even better views are to be had and one of them has a ring of advisory notices in steel telling you the direction and distance to key cities and locations - though it did include  Middlesbrough in this list for some strange reason!

Walking through the cuts gives an idea of the size of the stone used and the skilled work of the masons. Hard to show them but you walk through the cut shown here from the top platform

All in all a grand day out as they say in these parts and well worth a visit - you can take in How Stean Gorge or Brimham Rocks on the same trip too!