About the Yorkshire Dales

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Villages and Towns of the Yorkshire Dales

One of the great characteristic features of the Dales is the Villages and Market Towns. The chances are that they will feature as a start point on your walks, or a refreshment stop or you may well be staying in them. Each has its own character but they all share the beautiful stone buildings and walls, interesting shops and tea room’s pubs with the best beer in the country and hardy locals who are direct, forthright but friendly to their core.

Market Towns

Skipton
Settle
Grassington
Hawes
Leyburn
Richmond
Sedburgh
Pateley Bridge
Slaidburn

A selection of my favourite villages

Burnsall
Stainforth
Horton
Malham
Clapham
Dent
Askrigg
Muker
Kettlewell
Bentham
Reeth
Austwick

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Leeds Liverpool Canal, Skipton

History of the Dales

The Yorkshire Dales National Park was established in 1954 and now attracts in excess of nine million visitors each year to the region. The many original features of the Yorkshire Dales National Park were created during the Ice Age when melting glaciers eroded the landscape. This is one of the reasons there are so many stunning sites with spectacular scenery and unusual features. Hence there are many areas where visitors can ramble and explore lots of hills and uplands to roam, and caves and crags to investigate.

There is a lot of history steeped in the Yorkshire Dales. Many came to conquer, including the Romans who built roads as well as The Danes, The Norseman and The Angles. Castles were built leading to settlements forming and forests were used for hunting. They have all left their mark in the Dales and some of the sites have revealed many interesting architectural finds over the years.

Farmers today still graze their sheep in the many green valleys where the grass is lush and inviting. High up on the fells the hardy Swaledale sheep are framed. Cheese is still manufactured in the region; monks who lived in the abbeys were the first to make cheese in Wensleydale. The remains of many castles and abbeys are still around today and they continue to provide a popular attraction for visitors to the Dales.