Interpreting Cultural Landscapes in the North York Moors

Abstract

Landscapes can be understood in a multiplicity of ways, depending partly on an individual’s familiarity with the place in question and also on how it is presented and explained to them. Drawing on the experience of This Exploited Land (TEL), a cultural landscape interpretation initiative in the North York Moors, this chapter reviews the challenges faced by the National Park Authority and partners in making accessible, both physically and intellectually, the changes to the natural environment associated with nineteenth-century exploitation of mineral seams in the remote valleys of the moors. Different approaches to interpretation used in the TEL initiative are framed within the four instrumental functions of interpretation proposed by Uzzell, namely hard and soft visitor management, propaganda and adding value to the visitor experience.