Walking into the past at Threshfield Quarry

Threshfield Quarry is open to the public: you can follow our footpaths around the unique lime kilns area near the Lower Quarry, and link up with public footpaths leading out to the wonderful landscape of the Yorkshire Dales.

The following pages will take you on a virtual trail around the large Upper Quarry area. They record how it looked in 2014 following restoration work by the owners Tarmac, and they show the stunning views over the surrounding landscape of Upper Wharfedale from the footpath along the quarry edge. By clicking on the ‘old photo’ icon you can merge the quiet present-day view into the busy scene of the working quarry in the 1990s.

The heritage trail around the lime kilns has a smartphone app with photos and videos of the working quarry, and an explanation of the unique construction of the kilns. Information panels and a listening-post help to give an idea of what it was like to work here, and how far the quarry’s activities reached across the surrounding countryside.

Over the coming decades the Upper Quarry will gradually be reclaimed by nature. The bare rock is already being colonised by mosses and grass, and a few small trees cling to inaccessible ledges on the quarry face. Over time the bleak landscape that you can travel through on this virtual trail will disappear – and future climate change may well influence the types of plants and animals that move in to make this their home.

Thanks go to the quarry owners Tarmac, to ex-quarryman Peter Wood for use of his photographs, to the Yorkshire Dales Landscape Research Trust for managing the heritage trail project and to the Heritage Lottery Fund for funding it.