The Ribblehead viaduct sits in the middle of one of the most popular walks in Yorkshire - The Three Peaks - and is only a 20 minute drive from Ingleton, a place full of shops, pubs and takeaways. Yet it still feels remote, forgotten, stuck out of time.
Go there and see for yourself. There's no visitor centre, one pub, and a few scattered information boards. Every few minutes a train will cross. It will feel entirely normal that the structure should be there and is still being used, and at the same time somehow unbelievable.
Those that campaigned to save it love it and are proud of it. They now have Michael Portillo, the minister who finally made the decision not to save the line during Margaret Thatcher's third term, as their president. You can watch him travel the line here.
It was a privilege to film in such an environment and we have nothing but the deepest of respect for the place, the men and women who built it and saved it, and the way it continues to make us, and others who spend time there, feel.
Comments