Floods in Skipton

3 Aug 2002

Ok, I agree, this isn't an event in the sense that you circle a date in your diary and then just wait for the floods to come along. But it does happen regularly. You just don't know exactly when.

Whenever rainfall is heavy - and lets face it, this is the Pennines - the fields outside Skipton get flooded. A lot. The town centre doesn't flood anymore, (it used to before decent drainage was installed) but the flat fields outside town disappear under around 6 feet of water.

The River Aire follows the Aire Valley from Malham, all the way down past Gargrave, Carleton and Skipton, and on towards Cross Hills and Keighley. If you can get onto a nearby hilltop, it's a fair sight to see - miles of valley covered in water.

The second pic down is of a deer swimming through a flooded field (yes, we need a serious telephoto lens, I know), and the two below are of many many confused and washed-up snails all stuck on a wall on the road out towards Carleton.

See more flood photos