TWO historic Dales barns have been completely restored - and in a separate project the history of such structures and their role in the landscape has been recorded and shared.

Rampsholme cowhouse and Keld Side hogg house near Muker in Swaledale have been re-roofed, re-pointed and newly limewashed.

And while they were undergoing restoration work, local people, businesses and schools took part in a separately-funded but closely-linked project named Every Barn Tells A Story.

Together with Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) staff, they have researched and collected the stories behind one of Europe’s most distinctive agricultural landscapes.

The Every Barn Tells A Story project received £65,800 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £20,000 from the YDNPA and £5,000 from Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.

Over the past 18-months, local researcher Glenda Calvert interview 30 people to produce a new oral history resource.

The project has seen the creation of six walking booklets, framed photographs and A2-sized cowhouse information posters for local B&Bs, shops and cafes.

The final strands of the project will be completed within the next two weeks, including the publication of three short films, featuring people in Muker parish sharing their memories of the cowhouses.

Karen Griffiths, YDNPA’s interpretation officer, said: “With the barns falling out of traditional use around 40 years ago, there was a need to gather the stories of people who remember using them as cowhouses.

“Local hospitality businesses also told us there was a high demand for information from visitors – so together we embarked on the project.”