The Yorkshire Dales

The Yorkshire Dales is an area of great natural beauty and is possibly the most the popular area for walkers in North Yorkshire. A delightful area of stunning natural outdoor beauty, fascinating sites to visit and endless ways to enjoy this breath-taking scenery. With rich heritage around every corner, makes the Dales the place to visit for both young and old.

From Arkengarthdale in the north to Wharfedale in the south, the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales relies in fact that must of it is un-spoiled and natural. Its landscape with its very distinctive/majestic scenery contains picturesque villages, bustling market towns, caves, hills, mountains, castles and rivers. The Dales natural and majestic scenery is what attracts many walkers to the Dales each year. As a result, it provides must needed revenue for the local economy as well as providing many jobs for those who live there permanently.

The Dales essentially is a managed landscape which is a quiet, peaceful and beautiful environment in which to relax and unwind. The Dales balance the natural intimacy of the sheltered dale with grandeur of fellows, villages and towns and rivers. But its human activity which has shaped the typical Dales landscape. Since the Bronze Award age, the Yorkshire Dales have been shaped by human activity as much as natural forces.

The natural features of the Dales are the result of erosion by glacier ice. Weathering of limestone, shale, sandstone and millstone grit laid down about 300 million years ago has created the scenery that we see today. Today, the Dales contain many of areas where walkers can enjoy the natural beauty and miles of peaceful unspoiled countryside. The combination of high moorland, verdant valleys, limestone pastures criss-crossed by tracery dry stone walls, distinctive stone-built villages, crystal clear rivers and a myriad of waterfalls, makes the Yorkshire Dales a favourite area for all ages.

Most of the Dales landscape is dominated with wild countryside which goes on for miles and miles, separated only by minor roads, small towns/villages, farms and a network of dry stone walls, marking ancient field boundaries. The dry stone walls are unique aspect to the Dales countryside and bring a distinctive feature to the area which can’t be found anywhere else in the region. The region also contains some of Britain well known footpaths, the Pennine Way, Dales Way and the Coast to Coast route to name three, are well-known routes. In addition, the Dales has some of the largest mountains and hills found anywhere in England.

In 1954, the Yorkshire Dales became a National Park. Currently, the National Park covers 1,773 square kilometers with over 20,000 residents live and work in the National Park. The area is visited by over 8 million visitors every year who come to see the wonderful landscape, wildlife and habitats which the Dales have to offer.

There are special things to see in every dale, both natural and man-made. As well as natural attractions, there are castles, museums, gardens and much more to enjoy in this region.

What is in the Yorkshire Dales

Landscape : Landcape and Geology : Stone Walls : Limestone pavements : Hay meadows : Rivers and Waterfalls : Woodland : Moorland : Wildlife : Farming : Caves :



Landcape

It took perhaps 300 million years for the shaping of the Yorkshire Dales into the land forms we know today. The Yorkshire Dales is home to a varied collection of landscapes, from heather-topped moors to colourful hay-meadows. There are limestone cliffs and crags, waterfalls and underground labyrinths of potholes and caves. The grit-stone and limestone scenery of the Yorkshire Dales covers 683 sq.miles (1769 sq.m). Landscape changes have occurred in the Dales do to economic factors and the demands made by different social conditions.The third largest national park after the Lake District and Snowdonia, the park is based predominantly on rocks laid down in the Carboniferous period over 300 million years ago. The "Dales" provides miles of wonderful walking in ever changing scenery with the dales themselves dominating the scene. Higher ground abounds culminating in the three classic major peaks of Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent. Elsewhere notable summits are found throughout the Dales, most providing relatively easy walking to their summits, which offer fine panoramic views over the surrounding countryside.
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Landcape and Geology

The geological history of the Yorkshire Dales starts at the Ordovician period which was responsible for much of the landscape we find in the Dales today. The Yorkshire Dales are basically a section of the Pennines, the central mountain ridge of England which extends from the north midlands up to Scotland. The mountains here are lower than those of the Lake District, and therefore show fewer effects of glaciation. The peaks are much more rounded without sharp ridges, and the valleys or dales are more open. Also most of the rock is sedimentary, limestones and shales low down and harder gritstones on the tops. The limestone is porous, there are very few lakes, and streams have a habit of disappearing into caves via sink holes. In the past, there was a lot of lead mining in the dales. Melbecks Moor between Keld and Reeth is covered with huge areas of disused mine workings and spoil heaps, which are still largely bare of plants.

The unique character of the area stems from the characteristic pattern of underlying geology and a distinctive pattern of pastoral farming which has shaped the landscape for centuries. The relatively high altitude, short growing season and high rainfall has meant that the area has always had limited possibilities for agriculture, which is restricted to the rearing of livestock. The close relationships between rock types, landform, climate and the resulting history of man's activities can be clearly seen in this landscape.

The landscape is characterised by contrasts, especially between the dales below and the moors above. In the dales the environment is more sheltered and there are intricate patterns of walled fields, containing meadow grasses and wild flowers. Small villages and farmsteads built of local stone are tucked in to sheltered corners, often with clumps of trees protecting them from the worst of the elements. On the dales network of walls continues, with scattered stone field barns often appearing as distinctive features. The steepest slopes are often marked by the presence of sparse woodlands, or sometimes open rock scree. Fast flowing streams tumble down the slopes, forming dramatic waterfalls where the harder rock is rougher and coarser. On the fell tops the grassland gives way to sweeps of heather moorland and cotton grass bog. Everywhere there are dramatic views of characteristic combinations of hillside, valley walls, and barns, punctuated by outcrops of rock, streams and trees, and enlivened by the colours and textures of wild flowers. This is the essence of the Dales landscape.

The area has a physical and cultural unity, and yet displays significant variation within its landscape. The glaciated karst landscape of the Great Scar Limestone dominates the landscape in the south and west, notably around the Ingleborough area. The Craven faults are responsible for dramatic parallel scars in the south, giving rise to well-known features such as Giggleswick Scar and Malham Cove. The rocks of the 'Yoredale Facies' overlie the Carboniferous Limestone and form the moorland hills and plateaux which are divided by the intervening limestone dales.

The moors are high and wild, with extensive areas of rough grazing and very large, often hardly visible, walled enclosures. These high summits dominate the skyline above the dales, providing extensive views out over the enclosed land below and dividing one dale from another. There are extensive areas of heather moorland, especially in the south (Bolton Abbey), north (Swaledale) and in the east above Nidderdale. Here the Millstone Grit outcrops, notably in the unearthly shapes of Brimham Rocks where weathering has created almost sculptural features from the rock. The gritstone also influences the character of stone walls, barns and other buildings, distinguishing them from some of the more westerly moorland areas.

Each of the dales has its own distinctive character. In the north, Swaledale is perhaps the typical Yoredale valley, with its sweeps of heather moorland on the fell tops, its pattern of walls and field barns, flower-rich meadows and small tight-knit villages. Wensleydale is wider, with more varied landforms which creates some very enclosed areas. Bishopsdale is broad, with lines of trees and small plantations cutting across the dale, while Widdale has a rather bleak and forbidding character with rough grazing predominating and a number of rather incongruous conifer plantations. Wharfedale and Littondale demonstrate the typical Dales character of strong patterns of walls and field barns on the valley floors, with woodlands surviving on valley sides, and compact villages of stone tucked into the hillsides, next to winding rivers. Coverdale is quiet, dominated by rough grazing, with many small streams cutting down the hillsides. Dentdale, in the north-west, shows the influence of wetter, milder conditions, with small fields bounded by hedges rather than drystone walls contributing to a sheltered, softer, more domestic landscape.

Dales in the south and west reflect the influence of the underlying limestone. They are wide and open, with rugged outcrops of light coloured rock and pale green pastures, creating a distinctive combination of light and colour. Ribblesdale is affected by large quarries on the hillslopes, while Chapel-le-Dale reveals the underlying rock dramatically, with broad shelves of limestone on both sides. The hillsides, walls, and isolated buildings all have a unity of colour that creates a sense of openness and light in this part of the Dales.

The Yorkshire Dales are home to many spectacular geological features such as the angular unconformity at Ingleton (Thornton Force) and dramatic karst scenery around Malham i.e. Malham Cove and Gordale Scar. The village of Dent in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales is the birthplace of Adam Sedgwick who was one of the pioneering fathers' of modern geology. There is a granite memorial to Sedgwick on the high street and a Sedgwick Geological Trail.

Another well known village is Grassington in the Wharfedale valley where lead mining activities have been well documented. Many artefacts associated with the Yorkshire Dales lead mining industry are on permanent display locally in Earby's Museum of Yorkshire Dales Lead Mining. One such exhibit is the only preserved example of a waterwheel-powered ore crusher in the Yorkshire Dales.

In contrast to the scenery dominated by Great Scar Limestone, the Craven Basin of north-west England is an extensive area of significantly deeper water limestones and shales. From the southern edge of the Lake District to the flanks of Pendle Hill, you are transported through an amazing variety of rock types typical of carbonate platforms, ramps, slopes and basins. Bentham, in the northern part of the Lancaster Fells, is the locality where you can view a rather unique set of marine Namurian sequences. Two sections of particular interest are at Eskew Beck and Low Bentham Wier, in Low Bentham.

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Stone Walls

The dry stone walls are unique and charming aspect to the Dales countryside and bring a distinctive feature to the area. Of all the finest features in the Yorkshire Dales, dry stone walls are possible the most unique feature found in the Dales today. They can’t be avoided. They dominate the Dales landscape for miles at a time, going from Arkengarthdale in the north to Wharfedale in the south. For local people, tourists and visitors alike, the dry stone walls bring an aesthetic, distinctive feature to this wonderful region of England. Richard Meir says this about these dry stone walls, ‘the old walls have shaped our perception of what is right for the Dales.’ Dry stone walls are called 'dry' because no cement is used in them. Stones used are made of Sandstone, Gritstone or Limestone. Dry-stone walls are, with hedgerows, one of the most commonly used field boundaries in England, and help create what we now regard as the traditional pattern of field and lanes of rural England. But why are dry stone walls so special? Other areas of England have hedgerows to separate fields of crops and life-stock. But why does the Dales have so many dry stone walls?

All the answers to these questions are that dry stone walls were build to divide and confide, to separate crops from life-stock, to mark farmlands of one farm from another. But why walls? The answer is the Yorkshire Dales has a super abundance of natural stone. Stone is a heavy, bulky material which suits the harsh weather of the Dales as well as being a suitable material for building dry stone walls with. For centuries, local people and wallers have built dry stone walls using this stone found in that area. As a result, most of dry stone walls in the Dales today reflect closer the local geology of the each dale they are built and constructed in. The walls in the Dales are not of a uniform geology rather they reflect the contrasts in the underlying rock in each of the dales.
The roots of dry-stone walling as a method of enclosing fields lie at least as far back as the Iron Age. In Cornwall fields dating from that time are often enclosed by earthen banks surmounting large boulders. These banks are then topped with smaller stones and more earth. Drystone walling fell out of favour in the Dark Ages, not least because the Anglo-Saxons tended to settle in the lowlands, where their agricultural techniques were more successful. Throughout the medieval period, as settlement in the Highland areas increased, so too did dry-stone walling. Many monastic houses, particularly those in remote locations favoured by the movement towards enclosure of common farming and grazing land as English society moved away from feudalism.
The wallers of the Dales have made good use of all types of natural stone which is available. Most of the limestone walls are marked by angular and irregular components and silvery hue in the rock. In Yoredales, many of the walls are composed of grit, sandstone with limestone, which gives these walls a darker, moist and brooding quality. Typically all dry stone walls consist of an outer layer of large stones concealing a core of smaller stones.
Nature has provided the abundance of raw materials for dry stone walling, but it was humankind that decided on where the boundaries and walls that were to be built, and where the walls have been built in this landscape. Dry stone walls have always had a functional role in the Dales. They have aided farming practices, both pasture and pough-land over the centuries and adopted to suit both land-owners/users. Leisure has also determined how dry stone walls have developed over the years and centuries.

For centuries, local people have dry walled this landscape in order to separate their land from others as well as secure shelter from harsh weather in this landscape. The pattern of dry walls also reflects the network and pattern of farming in the region. There are several areas of the Dales where are three or four distinctive areas where partitioning has happened on the walls. Georgian and Victorian walls can be seen cutting across network of Medieval boundaries in the Dales today. They also evidence of dry stone walling from the late-Iron Age, Roman occupation and Middle Ages in the Dales today.
On the higher part of Dales, most of dry-stone walling is 18th century and early 19th century. The walls were designed in straight formation, to have resistance to strong winds and keep clambering, scrabbling sheep together.
Dry stone walls of the way they are built, are very strong in nature. Many stone walls are two hundred years old, some older. Most stone walls were built between 1750 and 1850. They not only prevent stock from getting in or out of a field but also provide shelter. Dry stone walls do not require the maintenance of a hedge or fence, and take no nutrients from the soil. Stone walls provide shelter for wild life; mice, lizards, weasels, stoats, and rabbits use them. Many insects thrive in stone walls also. Many different types of Lichens and mosses grow on them.
Today the dry stone walls are an important landscape heritage of the Dales. They provide a link with the past as well as the present. Many walls today are weathered and scared from elemental forces such as rain, wind and snow. For those travelling the Dales, they provide a unique part of the dale in which to explore, particularly if you are walking. Only time will tell if the dry stone wall will be enduring feature of the Dales in years to come. Currently there is frantic building of walls throughout the region in order to repair existing walls so that generations to come will continue to enjoy this natural part of Yorkshire Dales scenery.

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Limestone pavements

Limestone Pavements are found around Wharfedale, to the north of Malham and around Ingleborough. They have taken shape over the 12,000 years since the end of the most recent Ice Age. Many were formed by glaciers scraping the land down to bare limestone which has since been attacked by rainwater to produce a network of blocks and crevices. The damp, sheltered crevices provide a refuge for woodland plants such as several rare ferns.
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Hay meadows

The colour comes from a wide range of wild flowers, the most obvious of which are wood cranes-bill, buttercup, pignut and clover. The botanical diversity with some hay meadows contains 80 or more plant species, depends on limited use of fertiliser and late cutting. Some of the finest meadows can be seen in Swaledale, upper Wharfedale, Littondale and upper Wensleydale.
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Rivers and Waterfalls

The characteristic brown peat staining of Dales rivers and the natural foaming around waterfalls be-lie their clean, unpolluted state. The natural wild rivers Wharfe, Ure, Nidd, Aire and Ribble are free-stone rivers that drain huge moorland areas in the Yorkshire Dales. They flow through beautiful dales beside some lovely Dales villages. With an number different waterfalls along these rivers, which includes Hawes and Aysgarth Falls to name just two, the Yorkshire Dales have plenty of rivers and waterfalls to keep you interested for hours.
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Woodland

Probably the greatest change on the Yorkshire Dales, is the deforestation of woodlands. Mans need of wood and timber, has made many forest disappear slowly over centuries in the region. The forestry commission woodlands in the Dales consists of four only original forests, Jervaulx, Arkengarthdale, Knaresborough and Fountains. Today, just 1 per cent of the Dales landscape is covered by semi-natural broad-leaved woodland, much of it now confined to steep slopes or gills. Special to the Dales are the 'hanging' ash woods that line the sides of dales such as Wharfedale. Also important are the extensive oak woods around Bolton Abbey and the small scattered woods of Swaledale. Woods act as an vital refuges for a host of animals, including badger, roe deer, nuthatch and woodpecker.
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Moorland

Rough grassland, blanket bog and great swathes of heather cover nearly all the high ground of the Dales. Damp grasslands and bogs are home to species of upland wader such as curlew, snipe and redshank. Heather moorland, which colours large areas in the east and north purple in August, is usually managed for grouse, but is important too for bilberry, cowberry, cloudberry, merlin, golden plover and even adders which all exist on the moorland.
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Wildlife

The Yorkshire Dales is home to a variety of rich wildlife. Peregrine falcons nest on limestone crags, merlins live on heather moorland, and curlews fill the air with song throughout spring and summer. This highly valued area is carefully protected as one of the eleven national parks in England and Wales. One fifth of the Dales area has been nationally recognised for its wildlife, while Nidderdale and the Forest of Bowland are areas of outstanding natural beauty.
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Farming

The traditional system of farming in the Yorkshire Dales relies upon grazing spread between the fertile valley land and the upland rough grazing has created the distinctive pattern of land cover. Flocks of sheep grazed on the hill tops in the summer, are brought down to the sheltered valley bottom in winter and for lambing in the spring. A few cattle are over-wintered in the field barns and fed with hay, and their manure is used to fertilise the hay meadows; with stock moved out of the valley grassland onto the hills in late spring, to allow crops of hay to be produced from the grassland. This system has resulted in the exceptionally beautiful flower rich meadows in the dales, combined with the rough grazing and moorland at higher altitudes. Traditional Dales farming has shaped the whole environment of the Dales. Farming continues to play a key role in the local community to provide local employment. Livestock farming and the agricultural support infrastructure contribute significantly, both in terms of productivity and employment, to the Yorkshire Dales economy. In addition, farming produces milk, wheat, vegetables, cheese, butter and eggs products to sell to supermarket suppliers and brings more work to local the economy.
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Caves

The Yorkshire Dales are the home of Britain's largest collection of caves, in terms of both number and size. Caves are scattered about most of the hillsides in the Yorkshire Dales, but the caving community is centered around the small village of Ingleton where accommodation, cafés and caving shops can be found.
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