Arncliffe and Littondale

Littondale comprises the main settlements of Hawkswick, Arncliffe, Litton, Foxup and Halton Gill, and farmhouses that date from the 17th century. The main waterway in the dale is the River Skirfare which is fed by many small gills and becks.

 

It runs roughly parallel to Wharfedale about 3 miles west of Kettlewell

Littondale is rich in Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements, and has been a sheltered fertile valley for 5,000 years or more. Saxon cultivation terraces (lynchets) can be seen in the valley. After the Conquest, the Normans turned it into a hunting chase before the land was granted to the monks of Fountains Abbey in the 13th century, and became extensively used for sheep farming

View of Arncliffe in the distance

Arncliffe is a small village and civil parish the largest of Littondale's four settlements. St Oswald's church lies close to the river a little North of the village, and the road up the dale crosses the river past Bridge End where Charles Kingsley stayed

Arncliffe's houses, cottages, and other buildings face in towards a large green, and outwards to green hillsides etched with limestone scars. A barn to the north of the green is a good example of the local style, with an unusual entrance, and a datestone of 1677.

Arncliffe was the original setting for the fictional village of Beckindale in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale Farm, from its inception in 1972 until the relocation to Esholt

On Firth Fell between Litton and Buckden. This Trigpoint (Flush Bracket S5499) is 1551st in the Triggy Charts