THIS haunting hill overlooks the viaduct of the Settle to Carlisle railway and is less impressive to look at than the other two of the three peaks.

Despite this, Whernside is the highest and is 2,419 feet (737 metres) above sea level.

It takes its name from the word Quern, ie Quernside. This is an ideal Old English description of a limestone outcrop with a cap of millstone grit.

This gritstone was used for grinding corn and called a Quern. At first the grinding was done by hand but later big blocks were made into wheels built around corn mills.

This accounts for the name Millstone Grit.

From East Lancashire, I turned into Settle and then right along the road to Ribblehead.

I reached the T-junction with Ingleton to the left and Hawes to the right and part of an old Roman road. Looking ahead, I could see the railway viaduct and apart from the parking area and ice cream van it seemed deserted.

Nearby is the station and the welcoming inn also called the Station.

From 1870 to 1876 this was a thriving township of Batty Green.

As many as 3,000 men and their families lived in this shanty town but it did have a school and a library.

Lots of men worked digging up clay which was deposited as slush at the end of the last Ice Age.

On site, 20,000 bricks were made each day and used to construct the massive viaduct over Batty Moss.

The viaduct was 1,328 feet (405 metres) long and has 24 arches, each sunk several metres into the moss land.

On my way along the footpath near the viaduct I headed up to Whernside summit and my sightings of birds was impressive.

I saw golden plover, raven, wheatear, blackheaded gulls, rock doves and a pair of acrobatic peregrines.

Here I enjoyed the perfect balance between history, natural history and industrial archaeology.

Plant is the farmer's weatherglass

THE Scarlet Pimpernel used to be known to country folk as the farmers’ weatherglass because it closes up tightly whenever there is rain in the air. When the sun shines it opens up.

The plant grows well on waste ground and by roadsides and has a long flowering period and can bloom from April until well into October.

It has become famous in the Scarlet Pimpernel stories set in the Napoleonic period from the 1790s to 1815.

It is an annual plant and is found throughout most of Europe. In our part of the world, the flowers are of a very red colour but in parts of Europe they may be blue. Most scientists think that the different colours may be due to the chemicals present in the soil which varies from one region to another. The book tells us that “those Frenchies may seek the flower everywhere” but I prefer to look for the flower in our East Lancashire hedgerows.

Tufted duck is a little diamond

THE period from mid-October to mid-April is the ideal time to enjoy a wildfowl watch.

This week I set out to watch several of our East Lancashire reservoirs and the species I concentrated on was the Tufted Duck.

There are a few breeding records for the species in England but most are migrants which pour in from Scandinavia from October onwards.

The male is indeed a handsome fellow, being mainly shiny black but with a prominent white rectangle on his flanks.

Set on his head is a prominent yellow eye but it is the tuft on his head which gives the species its name. The female tufted duck is much browner and duller than her mate, but she can be recognised by her blue bill which is obvious in both species.

Tufted ducks dive for their food and I timed a series of dives at 27, 25, 27, 26 and 25 seconds.

At only 16 inches (40cms), the tufted is one of the smallest of our ducks, but as the saying goes they don’t make diamonds as big as brides!