The current Dry Rigg workings were established in 1938 by a Mr Walker of
Cullingworth, and the expansion of the quarry absorbed the former Combs Thorn Quarry, which was located to the west of Dry Rigg. Earlier workings are shown on mapping from 1909, when several quarries which are now defunct, also appear. Combs Quarry was started in the 18th century, but by 1880, quarrying had ceased, however, Dry Rigg was opened in 1938 to provide an "insatiable demand for aggregate". Initially, Dry Rigg supplied flagstone to the towns and cities across Northern England, though most was used locally around the area. The site is south of Horton-in-Ribblesdale, and north of Settle. The gritstone (greywacke) produced at Dry Rigg is known as being nationally important for its skid-resistant properties in road building, with Dry Rigg being one of 15 sites in England and Wales that can produce stone to a high PSV (Polished Stone Value - PSV is the measure of how skid-resistant the stone is). The stone worked at Dry Rigg is part of the Horton Formation, a gritstone laid down in the
Silurian period, and typically rates at 65 in its PSV. Previous uses of stone from the Combs Thorn (Dry Rigg) quarry area was as a flagstone, with the area being noted for its "blue flag and slate stones". The abundance of this rock led to a proposal to construct a canal between Settle and
Lancaster in 1774, though this did not come to fruition. Dry Rigg is one of four quarries in the Yorkshire Dales National Park that produces High Specification Aggregate (HSA), the others being
Horton Quarry, Ingleton Quarry, and Arcow Quarry, the last of which is located close to Dry Rigg. Since its opening in 1938, stone from Dry Rigg has been used in the road-building programme that was ongoing through Britain at that time. The owners abandoned the quarrying of flagstones in favour of crushed rock. Aggregate from Dry Rigg has been used for surfacing runways at
Manchester Airport and the
Falkland Islands, both carriageways of the
M6 at
Tebay in 1971, the
Newbury Bypass in
Berkshire, and at airstrips in the
Orkney Isles. The quarry covers an area of and was deep in 2021. In 2016, the connection to the
Settle-Carlisle Line was reopened to Arcow Quarry. This allows for half the output from Arcow and Dry Rigg to be railed away from the quarries rather than trucks on the roads through the dales. As the quarry is situated in Upper Ribblesdale, the normal route out was via the B6479 road through the dale. The opening of the rail link is estimated to have cut an annual average of 16,000 lorry journeys from the local road system. The quarry is worked by blasting, then crushing the rock, which yields on average per year. Output permissions from the quarry have dropped significantly since 2013, with the typical output from 2011 and 2012 being and respectively. In 2021, planning permission was extended for the quarry with over of gritstone expected to be quarried over the 13 years from 2022, allowing restoration in 2035. Afterwards, water will be allowed to fill the quarry, which is expected to become full some 30 years later. However, the quarry extension plan was left undetermined by a High Court ruling in 2023, which stated that "...the [Yorkshire Dales National Park] Authority had failed to consider the impact of the development of the intrinsic character of the Yorkshire Dales National Park." The appeal to extend the life of the quarry will go before another planning committee meeting in April 2023. ==Owners==