Aisgill is the southernmost of the hamlets that form the parish of

Mallerstang Mallerstang is a civil parish in the extreme east of Cumbria, and, geographically, a dale at the head of the upper Eden Valley. Originally part of Westmorland, it lies about south of the nearest town, Kirkby Stephen. Its eastern edge, at Aisg ...

in the English county of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

. It is on the

B6259 road New B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in ...

, at the head of Mallerstang dale, just before the boundary between Cumbria and

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 ...

. The highest waterfall on the River Eden, Hellgill Force, with a drop of about 9.75 metres (according to recent measurements) is just to the north, at . The river itself rises (at first as Red Gill beck, later becoming Hell Gill beck) below

Hugh Seat Hugh Seat is a mountain, or more accurately a fell, in Mallerstang on the eastern edge of Cumbria, England. It lies on the border between Cumbria and North Yorkshire. Hugh Seat is a high point above Black Fell Moss, an extensive area of peat b ...

in the peat bogs above here. It finally becomes the river Eden after merging with the Ais Gill beck, which flows down from

Wild Boar Fell Wild Boar Fell is a mountain in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, on the eastern edge of Cumbria, England. At , it is either the 4th-highest fell in the Yorkshire Dales or the 5th, depending on whether nearby High Seat (2,326 ft) is counte ...

. Aisgill is at both a county and a natural geographical boundary. It is at the watershed (sometimes called "the watershed of England") from which the Eden flows north towards the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

via the

Solway Firth The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven ...

, while the

River Ure The River Ure in North Yorkshire, England is approximately long from its source to the point where it becomes the River Ouse. It is the principal river of Wensleydale, which is the only major dale now named after a village rather than its r ...

flows south towards

Wensleydale Wensleydale is the dale or upper valley of the River Ure on the east side of the Pennines, one of the Yorkshire Dales in North Yorkshire, England. It is one of only a few Yorkshire Dales not currently named after its principal river, but th ...

, and eventually into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

. Swarth Fell frames the western side of the head of Mallerstang dale, and from Aisgill there is a view along the steep, narrow valley, with Mallerstang Edge and High Seat framing the eastern side. But the view at Aisgill is dominated by the great table-top bulk of Wild Boar Fell, to the south-west. The Settle-Carlisle Railway reaches its highest point at "Aisgill Summit" ; and there is a small viaduct where the line crosses Ais Gill beck. There have been three notable rail accidents nearby: the

Hawes Junction rail crash The Hawes Junction rail crashHawes Junction station is now called Garsdale occurred at 5.49 am on 24 December 1910, just north of the Lunds viaduct between Hawes Junction (now known as Garsdale station) and Aisgill on the Midland Railway's ...

in 1910, one in 1913 and most recently in 1995.

Gallery

File:Aisgill Moor from above Aisgill Moor Cottages - geograph.org.uk - 1050587.jpg, Aisgill Moor from above Aisgill Moor Cottages File:London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Princess Royal Class 7P No. 6203 (British Railways 8P No. 46203) Princess Margaret Rose, steam locomotive, Aisgill summit, Settle to Carlisle line, 1993.jpg, No. 46203 ''Princess Margaret Rose'' approaches the summit at Aisgill

External links and references

{{Commons category, Aisgill
A Virtual Walk through Mallerstang

Hamlets in Cumbria Eden District Mallerstang

Gallery

See also

Further reading

External links and references