Arkengarthdale - Key Characteristics
- Winding, narrow u-shaped valley within Yoredale series, with steeper slopes close to river but in many areas upper valley sides opening out to broader and more gentle slopes, giving a sense of enclosure only within the valley bottom.
- Underlying geology and effects of glaciation create a stepped or terraced appearance to the valley sides, farmland occurring on the valley floor and on gentler slopes interspersed by tree cover on steep, lower slopes, and rocks outcropping to form prominent scars on the valley sides.
- Extensive areas of devastation caused by quarrying and lead mining are evident as unvegetated rock, spoil and screes on upper slopes within adjacent moorland and within side valleys, and at increasingly low elevations within the upper dale.
- Linear belts of broadleaved, mixed and occasionally coniferous woodland are concentrated on the valley floor, on riversides and on the lower valley slopes, with occasional scattered tree cover on middle slopes.
- The intense colours of hay meadows and lush greens of the wooded valley contrast with the greys of mining waste and prominent upper valley side scars and cliffs and the darker colours of the gritstone moors.
- Peaceful and sparsely populated with treed small hamlets occurring beside the river and on lower dale sides.
- Sinuous nature of valley creates a series of overlapping vistas, dominated by the hilltops of Calver, Great Pinseat, Ketley Hill and the high edges of Windegg and Fremington.
- The fast flowing stony beck is rarely visible, frequently hidden by the steep valley sides and the line of trees and woodland that marks its course.
