Monsal Head Viaduct

This is a painting that is a memento of a holiday we had at Great Longstone in the Peak District in 1996. Tonight we watched a Railway Walk with Julia Bradbury and this is where she was walking.

The viaduct at Monsal Head is 300 metres long. The route of the former Midland Railway makes its way along Monsal Dale and was carried by a viaduct over the river Wye and into a tunnel which goes right beneath Monsal Head.

The viaduct is now an accepted feature of the landscape, but when the railway was built in the 1870s, John Ruskin campaigned against the damage done to this unique environment, simply 'so that any fool from Bakewell can be in Buxton by lunchtime'.

Happy memories!