Monsal Dale

 
 
Picture of Monsal Head viaductPicture of Monsal Head viaduct
 
The elegant Monsal Dale railway viaduct was built in the early 1860s.  The viaduct carried the Midland Railway line (between Matlock and Buxton) over five arched spans across the River Wye.  John Ruskin wrote angrily that the railway spoilt the valley.  Yet today, the viaduct is a tourist attraction, seen as adding to the beauty of the landscape, while the abandoned railway line is a popular walking and cycling trail.
 

Access and orientation

There are good views of the viaduct from Monsal Head.  You can also walk along the viaduct as part of the Monsal Trail, or stroll beside the River Wye below.
 

Railways rock

The railway line across Monsal Dale was part of the Midland Railway, running from London to Manchester via Derby.  It was built to open up the area east of Buxton for limestone quarrying.  As a result, quarrying and lime burning expanded.  The trains carried the products to the factories and foundries that needed them.  The line originally connected Matlock to Buxton, and subsequently to Manchester.  Railway engineers worked hard to carry the line across the Peak District, blasting tunnels and crossing dales with viaducts.
 

Ruskin rails

Not everyone liked the new railway line.  John Ruskin, the Victorian writer, artist and critic, thought railways spoiled the countryside for no good purpose.  He disliked the massive changes made to the countryside and wasn’t too happy that more tourists would visit.  Ruskin wrote:
 
[ext]“There was a valley between Buxton and Bakewell, once upon a time, as divine as the vale of Tempe; . . . You enterprised a railroad through the valley – you blasted its rocks away, heaped thousands of tons of shale into its lovely stream.  The valley is gone and the Gods with it, and now, every fool in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton; which you think a lucrative process of exchange – you Fools everywhere.”[/ext] 
 
Ruskin might have been pleased when the line was closed down in the 1968.
 

Industrial benefits

One local industry that benefited from the new railway was the Monsaldale Mine, located just to the east of the viaduct.  People had mined lead here for centuries, and more minerals were worked in the 1800s.  You can see the mine’s chimney, dating from the early 1800s, from Monsal Head.  When the railway was put in, the mine owners built their own tracks down to the Midland Railway line.
 

Fin Cop

There are many prehistoric sites in and above the dale, including early Bronze Age burial mounds.  Fin Cop summit is enclosed with impressive stone ramparts which create a hillfort.  They may have been built later in the Bronze Age or during the Iron Age, possibly at the same time as Mam Tor to the north.  We still don’t know whether the walls were defensive, or a symbol of the community who built them – or whether Fin Cop was a settlement or a ceremonial place.
 

Visit Monsal Dale by public transport

You have two options for getting to Monsal Dale by bus – services between Bakewell and Buxton, including the TransPeak, will drop you at White Lodge, near Taddington, for a walk into the Dale.  Alternatively, services from Bakewell to Castleton call at Monsal Head.  Visit Traveline or call Traveline on 0871 200 2233, to plan your journey.