The Brief History of The Honister Via Ferrata!

By Alastair Cameron

A brief description of a railway and footpath up the face of Honister Crag: This is about a relic of Victorian Times that still exists high in the mountains above Borrowdale. You may wonder, quite understandably, what we find so important about such fairly recent artefacts. But Victorian buildings and industrial structures frequently create considerable interest amongst the public. In Cumbria we have our fair share of them. The one I am going to talk about is, in my opinion, one of the most astonishing Victorian structures ever built in our region.
I think it is amazing that this particular relic got built. One of my professional roles is as a project engineer and I can assure you that even in today's period of high technology and advanced engineering one wouldn't even consider embarking on a project of this complexity and magnitude. And yet, in Victorian times, they didn't think twice.

A proposal was made in the 1880s, to design and build a railway system up the face of a near-vertical Lakeland crag. Honister Crag is over 1000ft tall. So by Lakeland standards it is a big crag. Although the rock is sound and good there have never been any major climbing routes developed on the crag. And the reason for this will be obvious in a minute or two.

Now why on earth should Victorian engineers want to carry out such a task? The reason is simple. The inside of Honister Crag is rich in green slate of the highest quality. It is here that the slate bands of the Borrowdale Volcanic Series comes to the surface and outcrop on the Crag.

Along the rim and also on the face of Honister, slate has been worked for over a thousand years (may be not continuously).

Although the slate was of the highest quality there were huge difficulties in carrying it from the Crag to the ports on the Cumberland coast. There were no roads in the area suitable for a horse and cart.

Engineers of the day decided that the only course of action was to build a railway from HonisterHause across the fellside and then diagonally up the face of the Crag right to the top.

So, in 1883 plans were laid for this formidable project.

The first stage was to construct a rail line from the summit of HonisterHause to a small coll at the foot of the Crag known as Stang How.

This structure was nicknamed the Monkey Shelf by the quarrymen. Today the structure still remains and the bridges have recently been replaced by the present quarry company.

Then from Stang How the first part of the railway was constructed up the Crag face. It was taken up to a steep gully on the crag known as Bull Gill. The lowest part of this first section crossed steeply the funnel of scree which had cascaded from the steep crag above.

Much of this section of the railway in more recent times has been re-covered by tonnes of scree. But, since this photograph was taken in the past 12 months, quite a bit of the scree has been removed by the present quarry company to reveal again the structure of the inclined railway.

At the top end of this first section, close to the steep edge of Bull Gill, the engineers built the first of three winding drums. It was obviously not possible to have a railway locomotive running on the track because of the steepness. So instead of this, stationary winding drums were installed. There were three of them altogether on the whole length of the railway. Cables from the drums were attached to the train of trucks and lowered them gently down the crag face. At Stang How, at the foot of the incline, the cable was removed and horses pulled the trucks along the Monkey Shelf to the Hause. Most of the first section of the incline was double-tracked.

The next section of the line was extremely difficult to construct. It involved bridging Bull Gill. Here massive retaining walls were constructed, the bases of them were keyed into the face of the crag.

The route then continued diagonally up the Crag face to the site of the second winding drum. It was decided to position the second drum at the base of a bulging rock buttress known as Ash Crag.

Many years ago, in the late 70s three of us decided to abseil down from the top of the crag into the track of the railway. The main reason was that we were looking for the Alpine Red Catchfly.

When we all safely reached the railway and looked down we were staggered by the exposure and the view. But the most important sight of the day was when we turned round and looked upwards.

At the top of the incline, hanging precariously over the edge of the crag was the remains of the second winding drum. We went up to inspect the relic.

There did not seem to be much holding it in place. So we kept a safe distance away. Unfortunately when we returned the following March the drum had disappeared.

The entrance can be seen in this image. Although the railway had reached the second winding drum, there was still some way to go. The big dilemma now facing the engineers was how to circumvent Ash Crag Buttress. After several plans had been considered the only feasible one was to drive a tunnel through the buttress. The entrance can be seen in this side.

The other end of the tunnel is out of site in this photograph. But having completed the tunnel it was then possible to extend the railway up to the location of the third and final winding drum just below the top of the crag.

Much of the old structure at this high altitude consisted of massive lengths of timber spanning voids between masonry piers. Today it is still possible to follow the route above the tunnel, but rock falls and collapses have made the area quite dangerous to traverse.

The railway system operated for over 30 years. But maintenance costs were extremely high. Honisters weather took its toll. High winds and driving rain could cause extensive damage in a few hours.

There were often several weeks in the winter when the face of Honister, which faces north, was completely iced up. Under these conditions work on the Crag was impossible. And eventually this unique railway up the crag , possibly the most amazing railway in the region, had to be abandoned and replaced by other means of getting slate down to the valley.


There's even more within the mountain , in particular two inclined railways, but more of that late!!!!