Colin Speakman

Raistricks And Other Hills Over 1,000 feet in the Yorkshire Dales by hill walker and keen amateur geologist Bernard Peel of Cross Hills is clearly a culmination of a lifetime’s love of the high fell country of the Yorkshire Dales says countryside campaigner and writer Colin Speakman. Bernard, he says, has done us a favour by identifying all those 242 hills in or close to the Yorkshire Dales National Park of more than 1,000 feet. So, go bag yourself a 'raistrick'

by COLIN SPEAKMAN

Colin Speakman tells of the sad end of one of the Craven district’s oldest and best-known inhabitants

ARE the Dales at risk from fracking, asks rural campaigner Colin Speakman.

FEW people in Craven will be unaware of the impact of the catastrophic floods this winter. Constant images, not just of rural areas, but the submerged centres of towns and cities such as York, Carlisle, Kendal, Leeds and Manchester, have dominated the media.

2016 will see the publication of a welcome new biography of a much-loved and once very influential Dales writer and campaigner – AJ Brown.

THE recent fire which caused significant damage to The Fleece in Addingham, one of the finest old coaching inns in the Yorkshire Dales, was a sharp reminder of a very special part of Dales heritage which is at considerable risk.