Almscliffe Crag, or Almscliff Crag, also known as Great Almscliff Crag to distinguish it from Little Almscliff, north west, is a

Millstone Grit Millstone Grit is any of a number of coarse-grained sandstones of Carboniferous age which occur in the British Isles. The name derives from its use in earlier times as a source of millstones for use principally in watermills. Geologists refer to ...

outcrop at the top of a small hill near the village of North Rigton, between

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

and

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The crag lies on the boundary of the civil parishes of North Rigton and

Stainburn Stainburn is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England, north of Leeds. The population of the civil parish was estimated at 120 in 2015. In the 2011 census the population of the parish was included with the parishes ...

. The crag was formed due to the softer adjacent strata of shale and mudstone eroding at a faster rate than the hard wearing millstone. The crag is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

Rock climbing

The crag is one of the best climbing locations in the area. The crag was featured in the first rock climbing guide to the

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...

, ' Some Gritstone Climbs', published in 1913 and written by

John Laycock Christopher John Laycock (1887 – 3 December 1960) was an English-born Singaporean lawyer who was the founder of one of Singapore's earliest law firms, Laycock and Ong. He was also a founder of the Singapore Progressive Party and served as Me ...

. Some classic climbs include Parsons' Chimney (HS 4b), Black Wall Eliminate (E2 5c), and Wall of Horrors (E3 5c). It is also a popular destination for walkers.

As a film location

Almscliffe Crag has proved popular as a filming location for

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

. From 1998 to 2005 it appeared in the opening titles of the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

soap ''

Emmerdale ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a List of fictional towns and villages, fict ...

''. Each series of ''

The Beiderbecke Trilogy ''The Beiderbecke Trilogy'' is a trilogy of television serials written by Alan Plater and made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network in the United Kingdom between 1984 and 1988. Each serial centres on schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin ( James ...

'' ends at Almscliffe Crag. An earlier TV appearance was as the planet Obsidian in 'Volcano' in Episode 3 of Series 3 of the BBC Sci fi series ''

Blake's 7 ''Blake's 7'' is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four series of thirteen 50-minute episodes were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first series, prod ...

'' which aired in 1980.

Folklore

Almscliffe Crag has been especially associated with

fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

and

changelings A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found throughout much of European folklore. According to folklore, a changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being when kidnapping a human being. ...

. A local family named Bradley had three changed children in their family in the early nineteenth century.

Name

The name was first recorded in the early 13th century in the form ''Almusclyve''. According to one source the name appears to come from a female personal name ''Almus'': although that name is not recorded, it is similar to

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

female names ending in ''-us'' recorded from Yorkshire. Another theory links the name to the Celtic ''al'' "fire" and ''mias'' "altar".

References

External links

Blake's 7 "Volcano"
(1980). Episode featuring Almscliffe Crag as a location. YouTube.com. Retrieved 30 March 2018 {{coord, 53.9365, -1.5931, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Landforms of North Yorkshire Tourist attractions in North Yorkshire Climbing areas of England Rock formations of England Mountains and hills of North Yorkshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in North Yorkshire