Crackpot Hall

After a weekend of torrential rain we had a break in the clouds and I decided on a trip to Upper Swaledale.
For me to reach this is a five hour round trip but the location I had in mind had the potential to be more than worth the travel time.

My destination was the delightfully named Crackpot Hall.

If by the name you have visions of a grand stately home, you would be very far from the reality. This is the ruins of an 18th century farmhouse, finally abandoned in the 1950’s due to subsidence (the area is littered with old lead mine workings - and in fact a spoil heap and old mine buildings sit directly behind the farm).

This isolated location, looking down the valley with the river Swale snaking its way towards the village of Mukker, was on my list of images to capture. On the day, the weather ended up being “too good”, with fairly flat uninteresting skies.
If the conditions were a little disappointing, then the ruins certainly made up for it. They are crumbling away, no doubt helped along by the harsh fell side winters it has to endure.
Yet despite its tumble-down appearance its isolation has allowed some signs of its past to survive.
A tin bath still sits in front of the fire. Despite a lack of a roof over head.

To capture the image, I scrambled up the spoil heap at the rear of the building, giving me a composition showing its place at the head of the valley.
Far from ideal, I was shooting directly in to the sun, so to improve the shadow detail I bracketed images to blend the high dynamic range later.

Before setting off home, a stop at Wain Wath Force to capture the waterfall was in order. Last time I visited was in summer and the falls were just a trickle with children paddling in front of it. This time after all the rain, it was in full flow. I made use of a long exposure to capture the swirling bubbles in the foreground with the falls and the limestone cliffs of Cotterby Scar behind.