Walks in the Yorkshire Dales - Dentdale, Wharfedale, Ribblesdale

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Reviews

The Yorkshire Dales is like nowhere else in England, a place of intrinsic and striking beauty that owes its scenic qualities both to Nature and to Man. Bestriding the central Pennines, that broad range of hills erupting along the middle of the country and known to generations of schoolchildren as the ‘backbone of England’, it boasts a diversity of landscape and character that is hard to beat. Walkers trudging up the Pennine Way from the south into Craven leave the sombre mill valleys fragmenting the desolate, weather-beaten moors of West Yorkshire and East Lancashire to be greeted by a brighter, more intimate scene of interwoven horizons. Rolling green hills, broken here and there by rugged scars of white limestone, rise to a distant, higher ground dissected by deepening valleys. Further east and to the north, the wild moors dominate, but even here a varied geology of underlying rock breaks up their melancholic uniformity.

It is perhaps perverse that, as an upland region, the Yorkshire Dales is named after its most low-lying elements. But, like the neighbouring Lake District, it is this complementary feature that determines its endearing uniqueness. Just as the Cumbrian mountains would be the less without scintillating tarns and lakes to reflect their awesome ruggedness, the character of the Dales hills relies on the gentle beauty that rises up from the long, deep and twisting valleys emanating from the core. Devoid of the dramatic impact of soaring peaks, knife edge ridges and great hanging valleys, the mountains here might otherwise be regarded as unremarkable with little to distinguish them from the other hills of the Pennine range, but their intimacy with the gentle valleys that they enclose is what truly sets them apart.

Despite the steep gradients that act as boundaries between the upper moors and the lowlands, it is often hard to define where the one begins and the other ends. Stroll in rich water-meadows beside a serpentine river flowing in a flat-bottomed valley or stride upon an airy plateau beneath vast, open skies and there is little doubt where you are. But walk from one to the other and the transition is often quite subtle. In many places, the neatly walled grazing pastures of the lower valleys climb high up the slope, sometimes intermingled with variegated woodlands that soften the craggy steps. In their higher reaches, the valley bottoms can often feel utterly remote from the rest of the world and have an untamed complexion that is more akin to the uplands. On the wildest of the tops, great morasses of peat hag and bog might stretch for miles, but even here the tendrils of ubiquitous stone walls are never far away, encompassing bleak tracts of land and signifying a belonging to some farm settlement in the valley far below.

Ancient trackways and paths ignore these geographical divisions and connect this dale to that or lead up to small mines and quarries that were often as integral to a farming income as the cows’ milk and ewes’ wool. Although the contours of the land mean that summits are rarely visible from the valley floor and vice-versa, for much of the way in between, the wider views encompass them both. And it is from this perspective that the two really do come together to be appreciated as a single entity – The Yorkshire Dales.

Set between the Stainmoor and Aire Gaps north and south, the Lune Valley in the west and running out onto the great expanse of the Yorkshire Vale to the east, the Dales covers a relatively compact area of upland plateau fragmented by a number of main valley systems. The tumbling rivers of the Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe and Aire all unite in the River Ouse, which, meeting the Trent, becomes the Humber as it runs into the North Sea. The Ribble, together with those streams gathered by the peripheral Lune, find their freedom to the west in the Irish Sea, while Mallerstang alone drains northward along the Eden Valley to Carlisle and the Solway Firth. Feeding them is a multitude of lesser rivers that gnaw deep into the heartland, creating a maze of smaller valleys and dales each proclaiming its own subtly different character. This variance is rooted in underlying geology, positional geography and the product of elemental forces, but important too is the way man has settled and exploited them over millennia. Farming, husbandry, woodland management, quarrying and mining have all left their mark upon the slopes; and, here at least, it can be said that the accumulative effort of successive generations has unconsciously helped in the creation of one of the loveliest landscapes in the country.

Although numerous lanes and tracks wind deep into the heart of the Dales, it is only the leisurely freedom of pedestrian exploration that truly enables an appreciation of its unique charm. This, the first of two volumes, is a wanderer’s guide to the southern and western parts of the area, savouring its ups, downs and endless in-betweens. The various walks seek out spectacular viewpoints, dramatic landforms, curious natural features and attractive hamlets and villages, but more than that, simply delight in the subtly changing scenery. There is something for everyone, from gentle valley and hillside walks to more demanding upland romps that take in the high hills and remote moors of the hinterland. For the newcomer, this is an invaluable companion. In addition to the route descriptions there is background information to many of the features encountered along the way. While some routes are inevitably popular, many others take you off the beaten track to less oft-visited spots, and even those who know the Dales well may find new corners.