Ribblehead viaduct is just over the border from Cumbria into North Yorkshire and is undoubtedly the most impressive structure on the Settle-Carlisle Railway.

Hundreds of railway builders (“navvies”) lost their lives building the line, from a combination of accidents, fights, and smallpox outbreaks. In particular, building the Ribblehead (then Batty Moss) viaduct, with its 24 massive stone arches 104 feet (32 metres) above the moor, caused such loss of life that the railway paid for an expansion of the local graveyard.

Memorials along the line, especially those at St Mary’s Church Outhgill and St Leonards’ Church, Chapel-le-dale commemorate the lives of some of the men who died building the line.