1913 Ais Gill rail accident

The Ais Gill rail accident occurred on the Settle–Carlisle line in Northwest England on 2 September 1913. Two long trains were both ascending a steep gradient with some difficulty, because their engines generated barely enough power to carry the load. When the first train stopped to build up steam pressure, the driver and fireman of the second train were distracted by maintenance routines, and failed to observe the warning signals. The collision wrecked several carriages, which were then engulfed by flammable gas, killing 16 people and injuring 38.

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Aisgill

Aisgill is the southernmost of the hamlets that form the parish of Mallerstang in the English county of Cumbria. It is on the B6259 road, at the head of Mallerstang dale, just before the boundary between Cumbria and North Yorkshire. The highest waterfall on the River Eden, Hellgill Force, with a drop of about 9.75 metres (according to recent measurements) is just to the north, at grid reference SD779966. The river itself rises (at first as Red Gill beck, later becoming Hell Gill beck) below Hugh Seat in the peat bogs above here. It finally becomes the river Eden after merging with the Ais Gill beck, which flows down from Wild Boar Fell. Aisgill is at both a county and a natural geographical boundary. It is at the watershed (sometimes called "the watershed of England") from which the Eden flows north towards the Irish Sea via the Solway Firth, while the River Ure flows south towards Wensleydale, and eventually into the North Sea. Swarth Fell frames the western side of the head of Mallerstang dale, and from Aisgill there is a view along the steep, narrow valley, with Mallerstang Edge and High Seat framing the eastern side. But the view at Aisgill is dominated by the great table-top bulk of Wild Boar Fell, to the south-west. The Settle-Carlisle Railway reaches its highest point at "Aisgill Summit" 356 m (1,168 ft); and there is a small viaduct where the line crosses Ais Gill beck. There have been three notable rail accidents nearby: the Hawes Junction rail crash in 1910, one in 1913 and most recently in 1995.

Eden Sike Cave

Eden Sike Cave is a small cave in Mallerstang in the Eden valley in Cumbria, England 400 metres (440 yd) north of Hell Gill. The entrance is 391 metres (428 yd) north west of an obvious resurgence in a small shakehole. This drops into a passage where a wet crawl leads downstream towards the resurgence, and a roomier passage going upstream. The upstream passage soon deteriorates into more awkward going which eventually passes a small but awkward climb into an inlet passage up to the right. The main passage goes to a sump some 9 metres (30 ft) long which has been passed to a further 15 metres (49 ft) before becoming too tight. The right-hand passage passes a section of sharp, steeply angled rock (Bacon Slicer Rift) into a chamber where the way on is a tight, wet passage where the airspace becomes minimal. The cave was originally explored by members of the Northern Pennine Club in 1960, and extended in 1982 by Ian Broadhurst and Dave Lamont. The sump was dived by members of the Cave Diving Group in 1975.

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1995 Ais Gill rail accident

The 1995 Ais Gill rail accident occurred near Aisgill, Cumbria, UK, at about 18:55 on 31 January 1995, when a class 156 Super-Sprinter was derailed by a landslide on the Settle-Carlisle Railway line, and was subsequently ran into by a similar train travelling in the opposite direction. The guard of the first train was fatally injured in the collision.

Swarth Fell

Swarth Fell is an approximately 1-mile (1.6 km) stretch of high ground (consisting mainly of limestone capped with millstone grit) situated to the south of Wild Boar Fell, of which it is a continuation. It is mostly within Mallerstang, Cumbria, but the boundary between Cumbria and North Yorkshire (historically Westmorland and the West Riding of Yorkshire) runs along its length, just to the west of the highest points. The summit, (681 metres (2,234 ft)) which is marked by a cairn, and is listed as both a Hewitt and a Nuttall, lies 2.1 km to the south of the summit of Wild Boar Fell, the two fells being separated by a col - where there are several cairns, and a small tarn; Swarth Fell Tarn. (This small tarn can just be seen in the photograph above right). Historically, the tarn was unnamed, and Alfred Wainwright described it as "a small, nameless sheet of water." In 2017, the Ordnance Survey agreed to label the tarn on maps as Swarth Fell Tarn. The name "Swarth" fell, like most of the names of geographical features in the area, is of Norse origin: svartr, dark in colour. Approximately 1 km south-east of the summit is the fell's other high point, Swarth Fell Pike (651 metres (2,136 ft)). Baugh Fell, Yorkshire Dales, is 5.3 km to the south-west, separated from Swarth Fell by Grisedale.