River Skell

The River Skell in Studley Royal Park

The River Skell is a river twelve miles long, flowing through the West Riding of Yorkshire, finally to discarge into the River Ure at the boundary of the Riding..

The source of the river is in boggy ground on moorland two miles north of Pateley Bridge. For its first two miles the river is known as Skell Beck. Descending from the moor the river enters Skell Gill, a narrow, wooded valley. The river valley gradually broadens, but remains well wooded, passing the villages of Skelding and Grantley and the 17th century Grantley Hall.

The river enters Studley Royal Park and flows past Fountains Hall and the ruins of Fountains Abbey. Below the abbey the river was dammed in the 18th century to form an ornamental lake and water garden. Downstream from the park the riverbed is porous rock that allows some or all of the flow to disappear underground. After this, the river re-emerges on the surface and enters the city of Ripon, and on the outskirts receives its largest tributary, the River Laver.

The Skell enters the River Ure half a mile east of the centre of Ripon.

The name ‘Skell’ is from the Old Norse skjallr, meaning "resounding", from its swift and noisy course. In the Middle Ages the river was known as "Heaven Water", presumably from its association with Fountains Abbey.

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