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 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 Wharfedal ...

in the

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales is an upland area of the Pennines in the 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 rising from the Vale of York w ...

(). 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 be ...

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 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 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 se ...

''. 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