Waste Inn, Boss Moor
Waste Inn is derelict, but very moving. If you're in the area and like walking, go there, please.
You'll find the remains of it at 955852 ("Lane Head"). To keep an inn in such a remote place seems odd, but , as Geoffrey N Wright says in his book "Roads and Trackways of the Yorkshire Dales" drovers were not merely crowded in there to drink and exchange news, they were there to buy and sell....
"..Contemporary with the Great Close Fair at Malham was a smaller one on Boss Moor... where large herds bought at Great Close were resold in smaller quantities to local farmers with less pasture to feed them."
Harry Speight (1895) writes of Boss moor Fair as being -
'one of the great farming events of the year in Craven, whole armies of Scottish drovers came this way with their herds of black cattle, ponies and sheep. They travelled these wilds from the highlands every autumn for the big fair held on the lofty summit of the moor 1,020 ft some 2 miles north of Hetton.'
No wonder there was an inn there. I had assumed there were turnpike charges on Mastiles Lane that drovers wished to avoid. And what I'd assumed was a stance was in fact an auction-field...Silly me!
PS There is more about Waste Inn, including a drawing of the inn, some of it guesswork, and a photo of the inn as it was 20 years ago, under "Rylstone Project".
The Spring...
...and what remains..
...of the Walls
New Guests, Old Stance...
...and one other.