Aire Gap
Aire Gap
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| Location | Craven District, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
| Floor elevation | 179 metres (587 ft) |
| Long-axis direction | 128 degrees |
| Long-axis length | approx 40 kilometres (25 mi) |
| Width | approx 20 kilometres (12 mi) |
| Depth | average 300 metres (980 ft) |
| Geology | |
| Type | Glacial U-shaped |
| Age | Carboniferous through |
| Geography | |
| Bounded by | Craven Fault and north edge of South Pennines |
| Coordinates | 54°0′0″N 2°10′0″W / 54.00000°N 2.16667°WCoordinates: 54°0′0″N 2°10′0″W / 54.00000°N 2.16667°W |
| Population centers | (Settle), Hellifield, Gargrave, (Colne), Skipton, Sutton-in-Craven, Keighley |
| Traversed by | A65 road, "Little" North Western Railway, Leeds and Liverpool Canal |
Aire Gap is a pass through the backbone of England formed by geologic faults and carved out by glaciers. The term is used to describe a geological division, a travel route, or a location that is an entry into the Aire river valley.
Geologically the Aire Gap lies between the Craven Fault and the limestone uplands of the Yorkshire Dales to the north and the Forest of Bowland and the millstone grit moors of the South Pennines. The South Pennines is the system between the Aire Gap and the Peak District. The gap was formed by the dropping of the Craven Faults in the Carboniferous through Jurassic periods combined with glacial scouring by ice sheets in the Ice Age. The Aire Gap splits the Pennines into north and south by allying with the River Ribble. The Pennine chain is divided into two sections by the Aire Gap formed by the River Aire flowing south, a member of the Humber basin, and the Ribble flowing west and entering the Irish sea.
The term Aire Gap is used in both Ribblesdale and Pendle to denote a hypsograph between those rivers and Airedale. Two locations are so described:
The Pennines form a natural barrier to east-west communications, but the Tyne Gap links Carlisle and Newcastle and the Aire Gap links Lancashire and Yorkshire.
To walk the Pennine moors is "potentially dangerous if the weather is bad and you are ill equipped. If the cloud comes down you will need both a compass and a knowledge of how to use it."
Its extent is vague, a 19th-century author wrote:
"This depression is known as the Aire Gap, occasionally as the Skipton Gap, Skipton being at its eastern end and Hellifield at its western end",
The Aire Gap is of considerable strategic importance and historically Skipton Castle controlled the area.Skipton is now considered more central to the Aire Gap than terminal.
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Wikipedia