Moorland which has inspired generations of artists and authors is to be conserved in a £1.9 million scheme. The Watershed Landscape project will focus on areas such as Rombalds Moor, near Keighley, and Ilkley Moor.

Spearheaded by the regeneration body Pennine Prospects, the scheme will include work to improve paths on Ilkley Moor and map and interpret the unique Bronze Age “cup and ring” stones on Rombalds Moor.

The scheme will also offer skills training, such as dry stone walling, as part of work restoring traditional features to the landscape, such as boundary walls, sheepfolds and shooting lodges.

The project, funded by a partnership between the Heritage Lottery and councils, including Bradford, was officially launched at Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley on Saturday.

Among the other aims is the appointment of both a community archaeologist and an interpretation officer. Watershed Landscape will also support an RSPB initiative to save the rare Twite – known locally as the Pennine Finch.

Six artists and writers will be commissioned to work with residents and visitors on new writing and visual arts, while archaeology and geology workshops will be open to residents and visitors.

Pennine Prospects chairman Pam Warhurst said: “This is great news for the South Pennines.

“More than a million people live in or around the South Pennines yet the uplands feel remote, wild and exhilarating.”

Fiona Spiers, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Yorkshire and the Humber region, said: “People love this area and have been enthralled by it for centuries.

“Its restoration, which will now be made possible by the hard work of Pennine Prospects and the partnership funding they have generated, will see that history come to life.

“We are thrilled to be able to play a part in sustaining this valuable part of the region’s heritage.”

She said the landscape revealed how people had lived from the land and were inspired by it, and that it now had a pivotal role to play in rising to the contemporary challenge of climate change.

The South Pennines Watershed Landscape is the upland habitat where rainwater is divided east from west – North Sea from Irish Sea, Yorkshire from Lancashire.

Pennine Prospects (the Southern Pennines Regeneration Company) was formed in 2005 to act as a champion for the area and co-ordinate regeneration activity that will conserve the landscape and heritage.

The launch of the scheme coincided with the start of an exhibition on the region at Cliffe Castle called Another View.

Gavin Edwards, the exhibition’s curator, said: ‘‘A lot of people living and working in south Pennines see the rural landscape as a backdrop to their lives. The exhibition’s about encouraging people to look at it in a different ways. There’s a lot of history and inspiration to be taken from it.’’