Here be trolls.....

I had a day out recently up into the beautiful and wild scenery of the Craven area of Yorkshire, in Lower Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.  It's less than an hour's drive from Saltaire but the scenery is very different.  This is limestone country - with rocky outcrops, disappearing streams, potholes and caves.  Here is the little valley called Trollerdale that leads up to a narrow limestone gorge called Troller's Gill.  Look carefully and you can see a few walkers and people picnicking.  They need to be watchful...  Legend has it that the valley is populated by trolls who hurl rocks down on unsuspecting travellers.  The ravine is reputedly haunted by the Barghest, the terrifying ghostly black hound of Craven, said to be the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story, 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.  It's a very beautiful spot but also quite isolated and it does have rather an eerie feel.  I wouldn't choose to walk up there on my own!