Ruswarp: Eleven Weeks by the Stream

The true story of the Border Collie who signed a petition to save a railway, then stayed by his friend's side in the Welsh mountains for eleven weeks.

A shepherd's dog without sheep

Ruswarp was a Border Collie, a breed shaped on the windswept hills between England and Scotland, made to work outdoors in any weather, beside one shepherd, from dawn until dark.

Ruswarp had no sheep. He had Graham Nuttall, and a railway.

Saving the line

In the 1980s, the Settle to Carlisle railway, one of the most beautiful lines in England, running through the Yorkshire Dales and the hills of Cumbria, was set to close.

Graham loved that line. He became the first secretary of the Friends of the Settle–Carlisle Line, the group that fought to save it. Ruswarp went with him everywhere.

When the public was invited to object to the closure, thousands of people wrote in. Ruswarp counted as a paying passenger, so he signed one too, with his paw print.

In 1989, the government announced that the line would stay open.

A day return to Wales

On January 20th, 1990, Graham and Ruswarp bought day return tickets to Wales, to go walking in the mountains.

Neither of them came back.

Police searched. Mountain rescue searched. Friends searched. They found nothing.

Eleven weeks

Somewhere in those hills, beside a mountain stream, Graham had died. And Ruswarp stayed with him.

Through the cold nights. Through the rain. Through the wind coming down off the hills. He was fourteen years old, with no one to feed him and no one to call him home.

One week. Then four. Then eight.

On April 7th, a walker found Graham beside the stream.

Ruswarp was still there. He had stayed for about eleven weeks.

The last goodbye

Ruswarp was so weak that he had to be carried off the mountain. Volunteers and a local vet nursed him, and he lived just long enough to attend Graham's funeral.

He sat quietly through the service. As the curtains closed, people there remembered him letting out one long, low howl.

Not long after, Ruswarp died too.

On the railway he saved

Today, a bronze statue of Ruswarp stands on the platform at Garsdale station, on the Settle–Carlisle line. Trains still run past him every day, on the railway he helped to save.

Why we still tell his story

He signed his name to keep a railway alive. Then he stayed eleven weeks so his friend would not be alone.

Ruswarp at a glance

• Breed: Border Collie
• Owner: Graham Nuttall, first secretary of the Friends of the Settle–Carlisle Line
• Famous for: signing the objection to the line's closure with his paw, and staying by Graham's side for about eleven weeks in the Welsh mountains in 1990
• Age in 1990: 14
• Remembered by: his bronze statue at Garsdale station, Cumbria

Illustrations on this page are artistic interpretations inspired by the true story of Ruswarp, not historical photographs.