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Settle is a wonderful, bustling, historic Yorkshire Dales market town at the gateway to Upper Ribblesdale and in sight of the wild and lovely Forest of Bowland. The town is full of quality independent shops, cafés, inns and restaurants and is home to the world famous Settle-Carlisle Railway. The surrounding limestone landscape abounds with dry stone walls, meadows, scars, peaks (three of them!), field barns, waterfalls, becks, caves, potholes ….. and sheep! Settle is the best place in the world (probably!) for the quality of the fell walking, cycling, mountain biking, sight-seeing and the friendly welcome of which you are assured. The tall limestone rock of Castleberg has been recognised as a beauty spot for centuries, ever since travellers started touring Britain’s natural wonders. The first visitors in the mid-18th century wrote that the rock had been laid out as a giant sundial and a Samuel Buck sketch of 1720 survives showing huge slabs of stone with the hours marked out on them running down the side of the hill. By 1800, the sundial was long gone and instead the townspeople had laid out a path to the top so that visitors could enjoy the fine view. The area was gradually developed over the next hundred years, with more paths cut, trees and shrubs planted and eventually various amusements added such as swings, a roundabout and roller skating. |