![Trollers Gill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Trollers_Gill.jpg)
Trollers Gill is a
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
gill
A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...
or
gorge
A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...
in
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
, England, close to the village of
Skyreholme
Skyreholme is a hamlet in Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales, North Yorkshire, England. It lies east of Appletreewick, in the small side valleys formed by Skyreholme Beck and Blands Beck, which meet in the hamlet to form Fir Beck, a short trib ...
and south east of
Grassington
Grassington is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. The population of the parish at the 2011 Census was 1,126. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is situated in Wharfedale ...
in the
Yorkshire Dales
The Yorkshire Dales is an upland area of the Pennines in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Yorkshire, England, most of it in the Yorkshire Dales National Park created in 1954.
The Dales comprise river valleys and the hills ri ...
(). The gorge, which is in length, is also known as Trollerdale.
Name
The name Trollers is from ''troll'' and ''ears'' 'arse', so the gill means "the troll's arse", presumably after the supposed existence of
troll
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...
s here. Arse is commonly used for a buttock-shaped hill. The present name was first recorded only in 1812. A survey conducted in the reign of
Edward II
Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...
listed the gorge as ''Gordale in Appletreewick''. Speight suggests that this is of Danish influence from the word ''geir''; a triangular piece of land that ends in a chasm.
Description
Skyreholme Beck flows through the gorge, but for most of the year the streambed is dry with the water flowing underground.
The beck is the continuation of Dry Gill, an intermittent stream which emerges from the
Stump Cross Caverns system north-east of the head of Trollers Gill.
There are several caves in the gorge. The largest is a
pothole
A pothole is a depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement. It is usually the result of water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over the affected area. Water ...
known as Hell Hole, which is 55 metres deep and has 210 metres of passages.
The cave was first explored in 1896.
The gill is also the location of an old
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
and later
fluorspar mine which was last worked in the 1960s.
Legends
Legend has it that the gill is the home of the mythical monstrous black dog
Barghest
In Northern English folklore, the Barghest or Barguest is a mythical monstrous black dog with large teeth and claws, This in turn cites:
*Wirt Sikes, ''British Goblins'' (1880)
*''Notes and Queries'', first series, ii. 51.
*Joseph Ritson, ''Fa ...
who can turn one to stone with a look.
[ It has also been suggested by some that the Barghest story was a major influence on ]Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
when he was penning ''The Hound of the Baskervilles
''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set i ...
''.
Local folklore declared that trolls lived in the gorge (hence its name) and would push stones down from the deep sides to people travelling up and down the gorge.
''Roger and the Rottentrolls
''Roger and the Rottentrolls'' (sometimes called ''The Rottentrolls'') is a children's comedy television series made for ITV by The Children's Company, which combined puppets with live action human actors. It was first broadcast on 13 Septemb ...
'' is a fictional children's television program which takes the name of its setting from Trollers Gill; however, filming took place at Brimham Rocks
Brimham Rocks, once known as Brimham Crags, is a 183.9-hectare (454-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Geological Conservation Review (GCR) site, 8 miles (13 km) north-west of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Engl ...
, a short distance away.
Gallery
File:Entrance to Trollers Gill from the south - geograph.org.uk - 413874.jpg, Entrance to Trollers Gill dry
File:Trollers Gill (with surface drainage) - geograph.org.uk - 662066.jpg, Entrance to Trollers Gill in spate
References
External links
Visit Troller's Gill from Burnsall
{{coord, 54.05301, N, 1.89762, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SE068619), display=title
Canyons and gorges of England
Wharfedale