Ribblehead Viaduct is a railway viaduct located across the valley of the River Ribble in North Yorkshire, northern England.
It is the longest, but not the tallest - Smardale viaduct near Crosby Garrett at 131 ft and Arten Gill at 117 ft are both higher, and most famous viaduct on the Settle-Carlisle Railway, a rail line passing through some stunning British scenery. Ribblehead railway station is situated less than a half mile to the south of the viaduct.
It was designed by the civil engineer John Sydney Crossley and the first stone was laid on 12 October 1870 and the last in 1874. It is 104 feet (32 m) high, has a span of 440 yards (402 m) and is is made up of 24 arches. It is located at the base of the mountain of Whernside.
The viaduct is curved, and as such can be seen by passengers on the train. The train journey from Settle to Carlisle is short enough to allow the Yorkshire Dales tourist to make a return day trip, steam-hauled, in the tourist season, additionally spending a few hours in the border town of Carlisle.
Approximately two thousand navvies building the viaduct established shanty towns on the moors, which were named after victories of the Crimean War, sarcastically for posh districts of London, and biblical names. There were so many smallpox epidemics and deaths from industrial accidents that the churchyard at Chapel-le-Dale had to be extended.
The Settle & Carlisle line is one of three north-south main lines, the others are respectively the west and east coast lines through Penrith and Newcastle. British Rail attempted to close the line in the 1980s, claiming the reason to be that the viaduct was unsafe and would be expensive to repair. A partial solution to this was to have only a single line across the viaduct, preventing two trains from crossing simultaneously. Subsequently, the viaduct, along with the rest of the line, was maintained and there are no plans to close it.
The viaduct is Grade II listed structure and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
