A Swaledale hill is to feature in a photographic exhibition by a local artist and gallery owner.
Twelve Views of Kisdon, A photographic Exhibition by Richard Walls runs from September 16 to 27 at The Station in Richmond and then at the National Park Centre in Bainbridge, during October, November and December.
Richard, who owns the Old School Gallery in Muker, said: “Kisdon is a hill in Upper Swaledale.
“Compared to many it is a relatively small hill, overlooked by its taller neighbours, but it has a rare quality. Some 10,000 years ago, towards the end of the last ice age, the moraine of the retreating glacier blocked the river Swale.
“Forced from its original course, the river cut a new path through the limestone to Kisdon’s North. With water all around, severed from the surrounding hills, Kisdon now stood alone, an Island Hill.
“Gradually, over thousands of years, the landscape became what we know today: the peatlands and heather, the pastures and meadows, the paths and tracks, the dry stone walls and cow houses (cow’uses), the lime kilns and lead mines. It’s a landscape that thousands of people visit each year, to walk through the meadows and over the hills, to kayak over the waterfalls or to swim beneath them, to explore the caves and the mines, to journey over the high passes.
“Kisdon though, is not just another tourist destination. It has five sites of special scientific interest (SSSI), Thwaite Stones, Angram Bottoms, Muker Meadows, Scar Closes and Kisdon Force Woods, all places of national significance. Perhaps more importantly, Kisdon is a place where, for many centuries, people have made their home; a place where people farmed, played, worked, mined, explored, been inspired by and protected.”
Twelve Views of Kisdon is a photographic exhibition based around a collection of essays written over the last two years, inspired by Richard’s desire understand Kisdon at a deeper level than a simple walk or photograph can provide.
He added; “The essays offer twelve different perspectives on the hill from those who have a personal relationship and attachment to it. These perspectives may at times be contradictory, but walkers, farmers, game keepers, conservationists and all those others who share an interest in the hill need to co-exist, and though at times they may disagree they all have one thing in common, their affection for Kisdon.”
Profits from the accompanying Twelve Views booklet will go towards local causes.
