Headstone viaduct

Headstone viaduct, built in 1863 to carry the Midland Railway over the River Wye in Monsal Dale.

The viaduct is considered a thing of beauty now, has a preservation order on it, and is one of the icons of the Peak District National Park.

However, when it was first built it was considered a disaster by the writer John Ruskin.

He wrote,

"There was a rocky valley between Buxton and Bakewell, once upon a time, divine as the Vale of Tempe. You Enterprised a Railroad through the valley – you blasted its rocks away, heaped thousands of tons of shale into its lovely stream. The valley is gone, and the Gods with it; and now, every fool in Buxton can be in Bakewell in half an hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton; which you think a lucrative process of exchange – you Fools everywhere”.

Headstone viaduct under construction in the 1860s

 

In 1968 the rails were still in situ

Headstone viaduct is also referred to as Monsal Dale viaduct.