Malham
Malham is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Before 20th century boundary changes, the village was part of the Settle Rural District, in the historic West Riding of Yorkshire. In the ''Domesday Book' ...
, North Yorkshire, England. It contains two waterfalls and has overhanging limestone cliffs over high. The gorge could have been formed by water from melting glaciers or a cavern collapse. The stream flowing through the scar is Gordale Beck, which on leaving the gorge flows over
Janet's Foss
Janet's Foss is a small waterfall in the vicinity of the village of Malham, North Yorkshire, England. It carries Gordale Beck over a limestone outcrop topped by tufa into a deep pool below. The pool was traditionally used for sheep dipping, an ...
before joining
Malham Beck
Malham Beck is a stream some long, running southwards through the valley beneath Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales, England. It originates in a cave beneath Malham Cove, and flows through Malham before joining Gordale Beck to become the River ...
downstream to form the
River Aire
The River Aire is a major river in Yorkshire, England, in length. The ''Handbook for Leeds and Airedale'' (1890) notes that the distance from Malham to Howden is direct, but the river's meanderings extend that to . Between Malham Tarn and Ai ...
. A right of way leads up the gorge, but requires climbing approximately of
tufa
Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertine ...
at the lower waterfall.
Notable visitors
William Wordsworth wrote in the sonnet ''Gordale'', "let thy feet repair to Gordale chasm, terrific as the lair where the young lions couch".James Ward created a large and imaginative painting of it that can be seen in
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
.
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbul ...
also painted a picture of it in 1816, also to be seen in Tate Britain.
Colin Tudge
Colin Hiram Tudge (born 22 April 1943) is a British biologist, science writer and broadcaster.
Tudge was born and brought up in south London and attended Dulwich College, from where he won a scholarship to Peterhouse, Cambridge, studying zoolo ...
references this feature and James Ward's painting in his book ''The Time Before History''.
The waterfall was used as an exterior filming location in the 1982 film '' The Dark Crystal''. Goredale Scar appears in the Netflix series ''
The Witcher
''The Witcher'' ( pl, Wiedźmin ) is a series of six fantasy novels and 15 short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series revolves around the eponymous "witcher", Geralt of Rivia. In Sapkowski's works, "witchers" are b ...
'' (S2 E3: "What is Lost").
Image gallery
Image:Gordale scar from bottom.jpg, The entrance to the ravine
Image:Goredale2.jpg, The first hurdle..
Image:Goredale scar waterfall.jpg, The upper waterfall
File:James Ward - Gordale Scar (A View of Gordale, in the Manor of East Malham in Craven, Yorkshire, the Property of Lord Ribblesdale) - Google Art Project.jpg, Painting by James Ward
File:GordaleScarValley.jpg, The valley just downstream from Gordale Scar.