Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership

The Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme finished in early 2024 with projects successfully delivered by a wide range of project partners, community groups and individuals. Over the coming months, we’ll be updating this site to highlight what’s been achieved, so please keep checking back.

Welcome …

… to the Westmorland Dales website.

The Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme aimed to unlock and reveal the hidden heritage of the Westmorland Dales, enabling more people to connect with, enjoy and benefit from this inspirational landscape. Specifically, its objectives were to:

Reveal the area’s hidden heritage.
Conserve what makes the area special.
Engage people in enjoying and benefitting from their heritage.
Sustain the benefits of the scheme in the long-term.

This was achieved through a programme of projects developed and delivered through the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership, led by Friends of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, and mainly funded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It ran over a five-year period from March 2019 to February 2024.

Here you can discover what makes the area so special, find out about the scheme’s projects, and view and download resources produced.

The Westmorland Dales

The Westmorland Dales is a beautiful area of Cumbria lying north of the Howgill Fells and within the north-west corner of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It stretches from Tebay in the south-west to Kirkby Stephen in the east and to Maulds Meaburn in the north-west. At its heart are the limestone fells above Orton and Asby, rich in natural and cultural heritage, and with magnificent views to the Pennines, the Howgills and the Lakeland fells. It drains into the Lune river catchment to the south and the Eden river catchment to the north. Relatively overlooked compared with its better-known neighbours, our projects have aimed to reveal its heritage for more to enjoy without detracting from its unique qualities. (Click on map for larger image)

Contact information

Friends of the Lake District

Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 7SS

Main Telephone: 01539 720788

Email: [email protected]

Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
Yoredale, Bainbridge, Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 3EL

Main Telephone: 01969 652300

Email: [email protected]

2.6 Traditional Farm Buildings*

A volunteer survey of traditional farm buildings, mainly but not exclusively barns, an important part of the area’s rich built heritage; and the conservation of two typical barns, one at Pendragon, the other at Raisbeck.

The aims of the project were twofold: firstly to carry out a survey with trained volunteers to further understand the traditional farm buildings in the area; secondly to grant fund the repair of a number of farm buildings.

The survey has taken place from 2019 until 20231, and was carried out on a parish-by-parish basis. The survey was carried out at one of two levels – a basic survey from public rights of way or a more detailed survey where permission had been granted.

In total, 223 farm buildings were surveyed, located both in fields and on farmsteads. The buildings were mainly for the overwintering of cattle and the storage of grass crops. However, evidence for the processing and storing of corn and green crops was also found in the buildings, and this has been compared with documentary evidence from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The results of this survey will be used to enhance the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s Historic Environment Record. The results will contribute to a greater understanding of this built heritage and its surrounding landscape.

The grant scheme has funded repair works to two farm buildings. This included repair works to the walls and roof of a field barn on the site of Pendragon Castle, and more structural works to a bank barn located on the Coast-to-Coast National Trail.

Project Reports

Traditional Farm Buildings Summary Report (pdf)

Traditional Farm Buildings Detailed Report (pdf)

Pictured: Illustration of a linear farmstead by Allan T. Adams.

Latest

Volunteers thanked at Friends of Lake District Awards

Hard working volunteers for the landscape charity Friends of the Lake District were recognised and rewarded at a special awards event at the Windermere Jetty Museum on Thursday 25 April.
23 April 2024: The Helm, paths to summer adventures

We were joined by a big group of volunteers with clippers, loppers and saws this week for bramble, bracken, and gorse management, to keep paths clear and create fire breaks.
Leaders' Landscape Training: The Westmorland Dales: its natural and cultural heritage

The Westmorland Dales has been described as one of the best preserved prehistoric archaeological landscapes north of Salisbury Plain. The landscape has been hugely influenced by the way people have exploited and managed it for thousands of years. The walk will explore this, attempting to decipher the layers in the landscape.
Leaders' Landscape Training: Understanding Tranquillity

Tranquillity is one of many components that come together to create the overall character of a landscape, and it is something that many visitors to the Lake District and Cumbria come to enjoy but it is often misunderstood or not fully understood even by those tasked with protecting it.

2.1 Great Asby Scar Archaeology Survey

An archaeological survey of the upland area between Orton and Great Asby, involving consultants Northern Archaeological Associates, volunteers and Lunesdale Archaeology Society, recording hundreds of features from prehistoric times to the 20th Century.
2.2 Little Asby Through the Keyhole*

A project on Little Asby Common stretching over two seasons involving Oxford Archaeology North and volunteers, which saw the excavation of keyhole trenches on different sites in the first year, and a focus on one longhouse site and a peat core sample from near Sunbiggin Tarn in the second year.
2.3 Digging the Past

Led by the YDNPA historic environment team, assisted by Eden Heritage, the project involved the digging of test pits by volunteers in the village of Ravenstonedale, giving an insight into the medieval and post-medieval development of the village.
2.4 Gamelands Stone Circle

The project comprised the undergrounding of a significant length of overhead wires by Electricity North West; the associated creation of a small car park; and an archaeological survey of the stone circle by YDNPA and volunteers.
2.5 Dry Stone Walls

A project with several parts, the principal one being a volunteer survey of drystone walls in Asby parish, led by David Johnson; the restoration of walls at Pendragon, Raisbeck and Asby; training; and hedge-planting and hedge-laying.
2.7 Small-scale Heritage Features*

A survey of all the key settlements, led by the cultural heritage trainee, engaging local volunteers to record features like churn stands, gate stoops and date stones which help give the area its distinctive character.
2.8 Our Common Heritage

An oral history project, which engaged volunteers in recording the memories of local farming families of the commons and how they were farmed, resulting in an archive of recordings and an exhibition which has toured the area.
2.9 Monuments at Risk

The project, led by the YDNPA historic environment team, focussed on two local monuments. It saw the excavation of a sow kiln at Pendragon castle, dating back to when the castle was first built, and a major conservation project on the 19th Century limekilns at Smardale, stabilising the structure and removing it from the “At Risk” register.
2.10 A Way Through (from Roman Roads to M6)

An interpretive project looking at the way people have travelled through and left their mark on the area from prehistoric times to the present day, with a series of website blogs, a pack of village heritage walks leaflets and posters.

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