Wall’s End, Calver Hill

Yesterday’s walk in Swaledale served up the full British weather menu — mist, mystery and a fleeting glimpse of actual sunshine.

Climbing out of Reeth up Arkengarthdale, we broke above the clouds into glorious blue skies. Descending Calver Hill, the mist swallowed us whole again. As it does.
Then this wall appeared from nowhere. A long, low dry-stone wall on the open moor, anchored at each end by a great upright stone — an orthostat. No wall above it. Just a wall below. Curious.

“Follow the wall to the end,” said our leader, entirely unbothered. Sure enough, 200 metres on — another orthostat. An abrupt full stop in the middle of nowhere.

Those Victorian Ordnance Surveyors mapped it as the “Longshot Bield Wall.” The archaeologists appear to have misread this as the “Longest Bield Wall.” Close but not close enough. Happens to the best of us¹‘Heritage Gateway – Results’. 2026. Heritagegateway.org.uk <https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=2107986&resourceID=420> [accessed 6 March 2026]²‘Historic Map…Yorkshire Sheet 37 (Arkengarthdale; Marrick; New Forest; Reeth) by Ordnance Survey, Published in 1857, Part of the Ordnance Survey Six-Inch England and Wales, 1842-1952 Maps’. 2026. Maps.nls.uk <https://maps.nls.uk/view/266665021#zoom=6.6&lat=3383&lon=10233&layers=BT> [accessed 6 March 2026].

A bield is an old Scots and Northern English word for a shelter — a windbreak for livestock on exposed moorland. Most are ‘T’ shaped, offering cover from several wind directions. Here on the south-eastern ridge of Calver Hill, the wind seemingly picks a lane and sticks to it, funnelling straight down Swaledale.

Longest or long shot — it must almost certainly have been worth the effort. It is, without question, the longest bield wall I have ever seen.

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  ‘Heritage Gateway – Results’. 2026. Heritagegateway.org.uk <https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=2107986&resourceID=420> [accessed 6 March 2026]
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  ‘Historic Map…Yorkshire Sheet 37 (Arkengarthdale; Marrick; New Forest; Reeth) by Ordnance Survey, Published in 1857, Part of the Ordnance Survey Six-Inch England and Wales, 1842-1952 Maps’. 2026. Maps.nls.uk <https://maps.nls.uk/view/266665021#zoom=6.6&lat=3383&lon=10233&layers=BT> [accessed 6 March 2026]