Marsett...

Sitting at the edge of the valley floor where the austere but beautiful cleft of Bardale joins with Raydale and the minor road bridges Bardale Beck, is the tiny hamlet of Marsett.

A small cluster of houses straggled alongside the beck with a large green separating the houses and the bubbling moorland waters as they tumble to fill lake Semerwater about a mile downstream where fishing is permited in season to resident holidaymakers. A sleepy timeless place where grazing sheep and cattle still wander free sometimes the only signs of life to be seen.

The minor road carries on up the dale to serve only Raydale Grange and Raydale House before halting under the steep fells of Outershaw. There are many tracks and paths climbing on the fell sides and tops including the Roman ‘Cam High Road’ giving spectacular views over the hills and dales.

A footpath crossing Raydale and Cragdale beck gives passage to Stalling Busk where the present chapel, completed in 1909, is still the focus of community gatherings. The former chapel dating from 1603, and now preserved but in ruins, stands proudly to the west of the village.