Abbey House Museum 2026
Yorkshire
Ingleby Incline 2026
To explore the incline it is almost a mile long (1.6km) and the gradient is mostly 1-in-5 (20%), which meant steam engines couldn’t tackle the hill. The answer was an incline cable railway that used gravity to lower loaded wagons down the steep slope. It was built in just seven months in the 1860s by an army of navvies using gunpowder and picks to blast through the bedrock. If the cable snapped, the wagons could reach 113mph by the time they hit the bottom and cause absolute devastation.
Open Days & Times
Access at all times. Visit website for more details.
Travel
- By Rail: Battersby / 4 miles
It's a very steep climb, longer than tougher than it looks from the bottom! Take your time and pause halfway for a breather.
A challenging route taking in high moorland, scenic views and a remarkable feat of Victorian engineering.
Victorian engineers never shied from a challenge. Here, at Ingleby Incline, they were tasked with transporting ironstone – brought from across the moors in Rosedale – down the steep incline, to connect with the main railway line at nearby Battersby.
An energetic walk or bike ride up or down the incline today shows how challenging the landscape was to 19th century entrepreneurs.
