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Crackpot Hall


​At first glance, Crackpot Hall just looks like any other ruined house. It’s hard to immediately see why it’s so well-known. 
There may be plenty of other romantic ruins in the Yorkshire Dales, but Crackpot Hall is certainly the best known, despite its seemingly remote location near Keld in Swaledale. It’s on the crossroads of the Coast to Coast Path and the Pennine Way.
 
Crackpot’s very name intrigues. Like many Dales names, it originally came from old English, and Viking times. ‘Crack’ is another name for a crow, and a ‘pot’ is a cave or deep hole. ‘Hall’ makes it sound like it was once a grand house and yet it was at most a hunting lodge or large farmhouse.

Picture
Image by Glenda Calvert
Picture
Image by Glenda Calvert
​One of the myths associated with Crackpot Hall started in the 1930s when the two authors and historians, Marie Hartley and Joan Ingleby wrote about a young girl called Alice who seemed to run freely with her dogs in the countryside around Crackpot. The way they described her laugh made her sound a little crazy and over time stories of a waif-like ghost child developed. The isolated setting fed such stories and sense of intrigue.
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David Almond made a radio programme about these stories after he tracked down the real Alice who told him she had once lived at Crackpot hall with her farming family and she did what many Dales children still do today… simply played outside and enjoyed the surrounding meadows…

Now walkers make mini pilgrimages to this lovely spot. Apart from the ruined house and the vestiges of the sheep pens and cowus, there is little of the house left to see but the beauty of the setting always remains. You might like to follow this route suggestion to reach Crackpot Hall.

Find more places to visit in the Yorkshire Dales

Wharfedale
Grassington
Kettlewell
Burnsall
Appletreewick
Kilnsey

Bolton Abbey Estate

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Swaledale & Arkengarthdale
Reeth
Richmond
Muker
Thwaite
Keld
Buttertubs
Langthwaite
Gunnerside
Crackpot Hall
Corpse Way
Swale Trail
Wensleydale
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Hawes
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Leyburn
Masham
Middleham
Askrigg
Wensley
Aysgarth
Carperby


Ribblesdale & Three Peaks
Settle
Settle-Carlisle Railway 
Yorkshire Three Peaks
Clapham
Feizor
Hoffman
Ingleborough
Ingleton
Stainforth
Nidderdale
Pateley Bridge
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Scar House Reservoir
Coldstones Cut
Fountains Abbey

​Brimham Rocks

About DalesDiscoveries.com

This independent not-for-profit website was created using recommendations from Dales insiders' - people who live in, and love the Yorkshire Dales. 
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​Copyright Susan Briggs 2021
The Tourism Network
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Love letter to the Yorkshire Dales

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Image; Guy Carpenter
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