The Settle-Carlisle Railway is a feat of Victorian engineering. One-hundred and thirty-five years ago, at tremendous cost and with great loss of life, this strip of rail was laid through some of England’s roughest terrain. During construction, the thousands of laborers needed to build the line lived in disease-ridden shantytowns along the route. The railway’s […]

Over the weekend, Kelly and I took a nice hike between two stops on the railway that runs up the Calder River. On the lower valley slopes, sheep graze over close-cropped hillsides of deep green grass bordered in dry-laid stone walls. But on the high ridges where no grazing occurs, the strange, low flora of […]