The Gaunless is a tributary river of the Wear in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Its name is old norse, meaning useless.A Potted History of West Auckland - Martin Connolly The Gaunless Viaduct, built in 1825, was the tallest

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

on the

South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway The South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway (SD&LUR) built a railway line linking the Stockton & Darlington Railway near Bishop Auckland with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (the West Coast Main Line) at Tebay, via Barnard Castle, Stainmore S ...

. Formed just south of the

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

of Copley, by the confluence of Arn Gill (to the south, coming west from south of Langleydale Common) and Hindon Beck (to the north and coming east from Langleydale Common), the Gaunless wends its way east, passing the settlements of

Butterknowle Butterknowle is a village in Teesdale, County Durham, England. Butterknowle is situated between the market towns of Bishop Auckland (9 miles to the east) and Barnard Castle (6 miles to the south-west). It has an attractive rural setting within t ...

, Cockfield and Evenwood and through West Auckland before skirting the south and east of

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

on its way to meet the River Wear. An extension of th
Copley Met.Office
weather station has been placed at the head of the river a
Copley Lead Mill
to study its unique climate of frost and snow. It lies in a frost hollow and receives no sunshine between October and March because of its geography.

Settlements

* Copley * Butterknowle * Evenwood * West Auckland * Bishop Auckland

Tributaries

* Arn Gill * Hindon Beck ** Cowclose Beck *** Foul Sike * Grewburn Beck ** Howle Beck * Gordon Beck * Norton Fine Beck * Oakley Cross Beck * Hummer Beck * Dene Beck * Coundon Burn

Settlements

Tributaries

Bridges

References

External links