We’re delighted to welcome Dr Bill Mitchell back for a regular column in Dales Life. Dr Mitchell is a former Craven Herald journalist, and was editor of the Dalesman for many years. Here he looks at one of the most iconic places in The Dales – Ribblehead Viaduct.

Mention the Settle-Carlisle railway and my eyes will begin to moisten. This occurs when, driving up Chapel-le-Dale, or returning from a trip to Hawes, I see Ribblehead Viaduct in its glorious setting of moors and fells. When the late Bishop Treacy began to explore the country north of Skipton, he was thrilled by “the most marvellous railway”. To him, it seemed as much at home as the rocks and rivers.

When in recent times the tracks over Ribblehead viaduct had been temporarily taken up to allow waterproofing to take place, the weather was at its Pennine worst – with howling wind and lashing rain. This did not stop the work in hand. I observed locomotives with attendant cranes from which sections of track were suspended as they were moved back into place. Geoff Bounds, project manager when Ribblehead viaduct was extensively renovated, described the Settle-Carlisle railway as having “an almost indefinable magic – a cocktail mix of fact and folklore, acquired in over a hundred years of operations.”

Tony Freschini, who dealt with the viaduct restoration, day by day, had been, until his retirement, the most northerly resident engineer of the Midland Region. Tony greatly admired the work of Victorian railway engineers.

So did I when, with permission, and in the company of my old friend Peter Fox, I ascended ladders and walked on scaffolding, watching men who were skilfully engaged in restoration work. The weather had calmed down.

The construction of this massive, twenty-four arch structure was managed by Charles and Walter Hurst. They had a workforce of sixty masons, mostly Welsh. The men with whom I chatted hailed from Lancashire. One of them, who was engaged in brickwork – red bricks, of the Accrington type – gave me a nature note when he pointed to a six-inch diameter hole and remarked that lile birds [blue tits] were roosting in it!

I had the novelty of standing on planking beside the viaduct. There was a sidewall between me and the railway. Tony pointed to a ledge on the wall. It had been festooned with strawberries, the seeds doubtless having been dropped here by visiting bird life. Even more fascinating for me was to see that one of the limestone blocks was festooned with fossils of a marine nature. It was fascinating to notice how experienced men were attending to areas of well-worn brick. The blue-black variety had been first considered. It was then succeeded by the more durable Accrington red brick. In places, the two types were side by side.

Stonework on the piers was replaced in what to me was a novel way. A cracked and battered stone was replaced by fitting it with a metal framework behind which was poured some appropriately tinted mortar. The face of the stone was given an authentic look by the use of a plastic mould that could be removed when timely.

Some of the work took place by artificial light. Touring the site when one of the arches of Ribblehead framed a blue-black silhouette of Ingleborough, against a rose-red sky that faded into blackness, I was enthralled by views of the viaduct in a contrasting artificial lighting.

When visiting the well-fitted cabin of the scaffolders, I passed under an arch made of scaffolding. More scaffolding had been used for a water tank. Indoors, when an extra man had been recruited his bunk was made of – er – scaffolding.

The settlement that evolved in the 1870s when Ribblehead Viaduct was being built became known as Batty-wife-hole. It had sprung from the appearance of a horse-drawn van. Ten men, including surveyors, lived in that van during the winter. It was a tight fit!

Wooden huts were of standard size, one being for the hut-keeper, another used for general activities and a third accommodating any lodgers. Uninvited guests were – rats! There was at Batty Green a chapel, a hospital (complete with mortuary) and various shops. Four thousand loaves of bread, baked in Settle, arrived daily.

The cost of restoring Ribblehead Viaduct was around £3m – almost the cost of the whole Settle-Carlisle line when it was built in the 1870s. Ribblehead viaduct is the most popular feature of the Settle-Carlisle, judging by a talk about it I gave in the Friends Meeting House at Settle. The balcony had been made available.

There was not a spare seat to be had. When the last sentence had been uttered, and the last slide projected, everyone talked excitedly about a railway viaduct standing in a spectacular place.