Old Gang Smelt Mills

High on the bleak moor between Keld and Reeth stand the gaunt, roofless ruins of one of the best-preserved and most structurally complex lead-smelting works in the northern Pennines. Two mills sit here: the upper, older 'New Mill' of the late 18th century, and the lower Old Gang Mill, built in 1846 to replace it, its tall square chimney still intact. Inside the long main building (about 24m by 10m) survive a wheelhouse, slag hearth and three ore hearths where galena from the Hard Level and Friarfold mines was smelted and run off as molten lead, with a separate roasting hearth and silver hearth among the outbuildings. Most striking is the colossal peat store stepping up Healaugh Side: roughly 120m long, about six metres (6.4m) wide, divided by 36 stone piers into three bays said to hold three years' fuel. A drystone flue once snaked 686m up the fell to disperse poisonous fumes. The mill fell quiet around 1900 as cheap foreign lead undercut the dales. Today the whole complex, with its spoil tip nearly 500m long and its adits, is a Scheduled Monument and a haunting, atmospheric highlight of Stage 9's high-level moorland route.

Highlights

The intact tall square chimney and roofless main mill (about 24m x 10m) containing a wheelhouse, slag hearth and three ore hearths
The colossal peat store stepping up Healaugh Side: roughly 120m long, about 6.4m wide, 36 stone piers, three bays, said to hold three years' fuel
The line of the drystone flue, which ran some 686m up the fell (a climb of over 150m) to disperse smelting fumes
Spoil heaps almost 500m long and old hushes (15-25m wide) scarring the moor where veins were scoured out
Surrender Bridge over Mill Gill (Old Gang Beck) and the little Hard Level Force cascade nearby
One of the best-preserved and most structurally complex lead-smelting complexes in the northern Pennines (Scheduled Monument)

At a glance

Period	Industrial (18th–19th century)
Stage	9 — Keld to Reeth

Take care

Exposed, remote moorland with no facilities, shelter or reliable mobile signal — carry food, water, waterproofs and navigation
Old mine shafts, levels and adits are dangerous: keep to the path, do not enter mine entrances or stand on capped shafts
Rough, uneven ground over mining spoil — not wheelchair/buggy accessible and slippery when wet
No drinkable water on the high route between Keld and Reeth; treat all beck/mine water as unsafe
In low cloud or winter, take the low-level riverside route instead — the high moor is hard to navigate
Keep dogs on leads May-July for ground-nesting birds (curlew, lapwing, grouse)
UK emergency 999/112 (Police then Mountain Rescue); NHS 111 non-emergency

History

Lead was won from these Swaledale hills said to date back to Roman times, but the great age of industry came in the 18th and 19th centuries when Swaledale was one of England's principal lead-mining districts. The upper of the two surviving mills is believed to be the documented 'New Mill', built in the late 18th century. The lower works, Old Gang Mill, was constructed in 1846 and incorporated the existing flue system; the documented record shows it working until at least 1888. The owner of the mineral rights, Sir George Denys, drove the nearby Sir Francis Level over in Gunnerside Gill, connected underground to the Old Gang workings. As lead prices collapsed after 1885 under cheaper foreign imports, activity wound down and smelting ceased here some time between 1899 and 1903, the trade moving away to County Durham. The main mill, with its flue and associated buildings, was Grade II listed in 1969 and the peat store listed separately; the wider site, including the New Mill remains, mine workings, a miners' hut and a bridge, is a Scheduled Monument (Historic England 1015860).

Myth & legend

Even the name is a piece of lore: 'gang' is Old English for a road, and the 'Old Gang' veins were reckoned ancient workings a thousand years ago — Swaledale lead was dug from Roman times. At nearby Surrender Bridge, stories say ore-carriers once had to surrender a toll before crossing.

Geology

The site sits on the carboniferous limestones, sandstones and shales of the Yorkshire Dales, threaded with mineral veins of galena (lead sulphide), the ore the miners chased underground and by 'hushing' — releasing dammed water to scour away hillside and expose the veins. Three large hushes, 15-25m wide, still scar the moor northwest of the mill, alongside spoil heaps almost 500m long. The fuel was local peat, cut on the high moss and stored in the great peat store, supplemented by coal hauled in over the fells.

Wildlife & nature

The mills lie within open-access moorland that is now prime ground-nesting bird habitat. Walkers regularly see and hear curlew, lapwing and red grouse over the heather, with the bubbling call of curlew one of the signature sounds of a Swaledale spring. Old Gang Beck and Hard Level Gill tumble through the ruins, with the small Hard Level Force a lively cascade after rain. Because of the nesting birds, dogs should be kept on leads from May to July.

The view

This is one of the most atmospheric stretches of the entire Coast to Coast: a vast, silent industrial graveyard set in empty moorland, the ruined mill, lone chimney and the colonnade of peat-store piers stark against the sky. The high-level route gives sweeping views over Swaledale before the descent past Surrender Bridge, beneath Calver Hill, into Reeth.

Photography

Best shots are the standing chimney and the roofless mill walls framed by Old Gang Beck, and the long row of tapering peat-store piers stepping up Healaugh Side (especially in low, raking light early or late in the day). Soft morning or evening light and a moody sky suit the melancholy mood; heather adds purple foreground in August. Surrender Bridge over Mill Gill (Old Gang Beck) makes a classic supporting image.

When to visit

The high-level mining route is the recommended way in late spring to autumn (April-October), when the moor is driest and the heather blooms in August. In winter or low cloud the exposed moorland is bleak and route-finding harder, and the gentler riverside (low) alternative through Swaledale's villages is the safer choice. Note the May-July bird-nesting period for dogs.

Getting there

There is no public transport at the mills. The nearest is Reeth, served by the Little White Bus (Service 30, the Swaledale Shuttle) linking Keld, Reeth and Richmond; Gunnerside down in the valley is on the same route. The nearest rail stations are well to the east via Richmond/Northallerton. By car, park informally at Surrender Bridge.

Where to stay

There is no accommodation on the moor. Reeth, at the end of Stage 9 (a few miles on), is the usual overnight stop, with B&Bs and guesthouses (e.g. Cambridge House, the Burgoyne Hotel), several pubs around the green, a youth hostel (YHA Grinton Lodge) at Grinton just across the river, and the Dales Bike Centre bunkhouse and cafe a few minutes beyond Reeth on the route. Book ahead in peak season (June-September). Baggage-transfer services serve Reeth.

Food & water

Carry your own water for this stretch — there are no taps or shops between Keld and Reeth on the high route. Old Gang Beck and Hard Level Gill run through the site but any moorland or mine-affected water should be regarded as unsafe to drink untreated, given the lead-mining ground. Refill at Keld before setting out and at Reeth at the end.

Safety

This is exposed, remote moorland with no facilities, shelter or reliable mobile signal — carry food, water, full waterproofs, map and compass/GPS. The ground is rough underfoot over old spoil heaps and tracks. Old mine shafts, levels and adits riddle the area: keep to the path, do not enter or climb into any mine entrance or stand on capped shafts, and supervise children and dogs closely. In an emergency dial 999 or 112 and ask for Police, then Mountain Rescue; NHS 111 for non-emergencies.

Accessibility

The ruins are accessible at all times as open-access land directly from the Coast to Coast path, with no gate. There is no step-free or wheelchair-friendly access: the approach is over rough moorland track and uneven mining spoil. Informal roadside parking is available at Surrender Bridge for those visiting by car (the nearest vehicle access), from where it is a walk of about a mile up the track along Mill Gill and Hard Level Gill to the mill.

Visitor tips

Take time here — many walkers rate this the most evocative spot of the day. Look for the three ore hearths and wheelhouse inside the long mill building, the intact square chimney, and especially the ruined peat store's 36 piers marching up the hillside. Trace the line of the flue climbing the fell. In poor weather or low cloud, seriously consider the low-level riverside route through Swaledale instead; the high moor is no place to be lost. Nearest refreshments off-route are at Gunnerside, Low Row or Langthwaite, otherwise wait for Reeth.

Listen: the audio guide

Old Gang Smelt Mills: The Gaunt Chimneys of the Moor · 4 min 24 s · play the audio

The full narration of this stop's audio guide, in text.

You round the shoulder of the moor and stop. Below you, roofless and grey, stands a tall stone chimney and the broken walls of a great works — silent now, but once roaring with fire and molten lead. This is Old Gang, high on the empty tops of Swaledale, and this quiet moor was once one of the most industrial landscapes in all of England. For two centuries — through the seventeen and eighteen hundreds — Swaledale was lead country. Beneath these hills ran rich veins of lead ore, and men tore it out by the thousand tonnes, then smelted it here, on the wild ground above Gunnerside Gill. The Old Gang mills were among the greatest of these works: furnaces where crushed ore was roasted and melted, the lead run off in glittering streams to be cast into ingots. It was brutal, poisonous, dangerous work, and it filled these silent valleys with smoke and clatter and the coming and going of hundreds of miners. Then, late in the eighteen hundreds, the ore ran thin, cheaper lead came from abroad, and the whole industry collapsed within a generation. The men left, many emigrating to the mines of America. The fires went cold. And the moor began, slowly, to take its works back — leaving the gaunt chimney and the roofless walls you see today as one of the most haunting sights on the entire Coast to Coast. Look, first, at the great chimney itself — a tall square stack of dressed stone, still standing after all these years, the landmark that draws the eye across the moor. Second, examine the roofless mill buildings around it: the thick walls, the empty window arches, the openings where furnaces once glowed. Third, find the long, low, many-arched building on the slope above — the peat store, where fuel was stacked and dried to feed the smelters, its rows of open bays like the ribs of some vast animal. Fourth, trace the flues — the stone channels that snaked up the hillside to carry away poisonous fumes, and along which men once scraped the lead-rich soot back out. And fifth, look at the ground itself: the grey spoil heaps, the scars and hushes where whole hillsides were sluiced away with dammed water to expose the veins, a landscape utterly reshaped by human hunger for lead. Picture the miners who worked here. Many walked miles across the moor each morning from cottages down in the dale, in all weathers, to spend their day underground or beside the choking furnaces. The work aged them fast; the lead poisoned lungs and land alike. Yet whole communities — chapels, schools, whole villages down in Swaledale — grew up on the back of it, families bound for generations to the ore beneath the hills. When you stand among these ruins, you are standing in what was once a place of deafening noise and firelight and human labour, now given over entirely to the wind and the curlew's cry. It is one of the finest and best-preserved lead-mining landscapes anywhere in Britain — a whole vanished industry laid open on the moor for anyone with eyes to read it. These are old workings, and the moor around them is riddled with them — so keep to the path, and never be tempted into a shaft, an adit, or a crumbling wall, for the ground can be treacherous where the miners left it. From here the Coast to Coast follows the old miners' tracks down into upper Swaledale, towards the little hamlet of Keld and its ring of tumbling waterfalls, where the river runs clear and the industry is left behind. Take one last look at that lonely chimney on the skyline, and walk on. Walk safe.

Common questions

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Old Gang Smelt Mills dates from the Industrial (18th–19th century) period.

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