{"id":453757,"date":"2026-05-17T17:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T17:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/453757\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T17:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T17:06:10","slug":"it-might-only-be-two-metres-wide-but-dont-be-deceived-as-this-feisty-stream-is-highly-treacherous-and-has-a-100-fatality-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/453757\/","title":{"rendered":"It might only be two metres wide, but don&#8217;t be deceived as this feisty stream is highly treacherous and has a 100% fatality rate&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do\u00a0not\u00a0underestimate the Strid, a narrow stretch of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.countryfile.com\/go-outdoors\/walks\/walk-river-wharfe-and-bolton-priory-north-yorkshire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey<\/a> in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.countryfile.com\/go-outdoors\/days-out\/guide-to-yorkshire-where-to-stay-eat-visit-walks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Yorkshire<\/a>. Although it may look little more than a feisty stream, with its burbling waters and moss-covered rocks, the Strid is deceptively dangerous.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Upstream from the Strid, the river is a generous 27 metres wide and the water flows slowly, but on entry to the feature, it is squeezed into a narrow, deep channel, two metres across and four metres deep. Large volumes of water are forced through the chasm at high speeds, creating powerful undercurrents.<\/p>\n<p>Over time, this has undercut the rocks that flank the Strid, creating dangerous overhangs that make it incredibly difficult for anyone that falls in to climb out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Locals have claimed that the river here has a 100% fatality rate, and whilst data is lacking, there have been a number of high profile tragedies. Notably, in the twelfth century, a young nobleman called William de Romily drowned when he tried and failed to jump across. His story inspired William Wordworth\u2019s poem\u00a0The Force of Prayer.<\/p>\n<p>Top image: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/search\/2\/image?artistexact=OLI%20SCARFF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> OLI SCARFF<\/a>\u00a0\/ Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do\u00a0not\u00a0underestimate the Strid, a narrow stretch of the River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire. Although it may&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-453757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}