Run the Dales

HERITAGE

“I quite enjoyed fell running, it got me round and about…”

Bill Teasdale MBE
Fell running legend and seven times winner of the prestigious Kilnsey Crag Race

With over 200 years of history behind it, fell running is one of the Yorkshire Dales’ original sports. Here we lift the lid on its stars, pioneers and Iconic Races.

The Yorkshire Dales, Lake District, Cheviot Hills and Scotland have a strong tradition of sport, no doubt inspired by their awesome fells and mountains, with a ‘race up and down a nearby hillside’ being a pursuit passed down through the centuries.

The earliest recorded fell race took place in Scotland in 1040 and is credited as being the precursor to the famous Braemar highland games.

The Yorkshire Dales’ Burnsall Feast Sports holds the distinction of being one of the oldest sports gatherings in England, dating back to the Elizabethan period or earlier. These sports now also lay claim to the famous Burnsall Classic, one of the oldest fell races on record, which dates back to between 1850 and 1865.

The race’s legacy became even more marked in 1910 when a ‘special race’ was organised to contest its existing course record set in 1908. Eight entrants took to the start line, one of whom was Ernest Dalzell from Sheepfold, Keswick. Winning the testing challenge up and down the 386m high Burnsall Fell, Dalzell, renowned for his spectacular air borne descents, triumphed in a new record time of 12 minutes, 59.8 seconds.

Dalzell’s 66 year old record was finally beaten by Fred Reeves of Coniston, the Lake District in another special race organised to commemorate Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. Reeves’ new record time of 12 minutes, 47.2 seconds remains unbroken to this day.

Photograph features Ernest Dalzell in 1910 at Grasmere Sports, just a month prior to setting his famous Burnsall Classic record.