The Ribblehead Viaduct or Batty Moss Viaduct carries the Settle–Carlisle railway across Batty Moss in the Ribble Valley at Ribblehead, in North Yorkshire, England.

Due to boundary changes in 1974 it also means that you leave North Yorkshire and enter Cumbria, or vice-versa as you pass through the tunnel. The route of the tunnel can be clearly followed above ground by the line of shafts that were built to aid construction….Blea Moor.

2,629 yd
It is 2,629 yd (2,404 m) long, between Ribblehead Viaduct and Dent Head Viaduct. It took almost five years to build finally being completed in 1875, is twice as long as the second longest tunnel, Rise Hill Tunnel, and passes some 500 feet below the moor after which it was named.

John Sydney Crossley
Ribblehead Viaduct/Architects

Designed by John Sydney Crossley (Chief Engineer of the Midland Railway), the viaduct is the longest and third tallest structure on the Settle-Carlisle line. The Viaduct has twenty-four magnificent arches that carry the railway line 104 ft above the moor.

The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via meaning “road”, and ducere meaning “to lead”. It is a 19th-century derivation from an analogy with ancient Roman aqueducts. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early viaducts comprised a series of arches of roughly equal length.

Ribblehead
Ribblehead Viaduct/Location

Rise Hill Tunnel is 1213 yards (3639 ft) long and was originally known as Black Moss tunnel.

Cumbria
Blea Moor Tunnel is a 2,629 yd (2,404 m) railway tunnel located between Ribblehead Viaduct and Dent railway station in England….Blea Moor Tunnel.

Ribblehead Viaduct is made of limestone, apparently quarried nearby, and marches across the valley at Batty Moss near Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales.

viaduct, type of long bridge or series of bridges, usually supported by a series of arches or on spans between tall towers. The purpose of a viaduct is to carry a road or railway over water, a valley, or another road.

The difference lies in their primary use, position and construction. A viaduct usually refers to long bridges or series of bridges connected to one another by arch bridge structures that carries a road or a railway across a valley or a gorge. Bridges, on the other hand, are usually built over bodies of water.

October 12, 1870
Ribblehead Viaduct/Constructions started

It is 2,629 yd (2,404 m) long, between Ribblehead Viaduct and Dent Head Viaduct. It took almost five years to build finally being completed in 1875, is twice as long as the second longest tunnel, Rise Hill Tunnel, and passes some 500 feet below the moor after which it was named.

Aesthetically speaking Blea Moor is not likely to win any prizes, in fact it is one of the least photogenic hills in the Yorkshire Dales. Of course it doesn’t help that it is situated directly to the east of Whernside whose much greater height renders Blea Moor almost invisible from most directions.

The lower southern slopes of Blea Moor is also home to the Blea Moor signal box, at over three quarters of a mile from the nearest road it is said to be one of the most remote signal boxes in the UK.

Based partly on the Latin ducere, meaning “lead” or “conduct,” the word aqueduct named an ancient civil-engineering marvel. Ancient Rome’s aqueduct system, an extraordinary feat of engineering, brought water to the city from as far as 57 miles (92 kilometers) away.