Yorkshire Dales & Ribblehead

The Yorkshire Dales are a series of valleys (dales) in the Pennines, an upland range in England. They are located in north-central England and mostly protected as the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The park was established in 1954 and spans North Yorkshire, Cumbria, and Lancashire over 841 square miles (2,179 square kilometers). 

A view of a Yorkshire Dales valley

They're located in north-central England and mostly protected as part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The park was established in 1954 and spans North Yorkshire, Cumbria, and Lancashire over 841 square miles (2,179 square kilometers). The area is renowned for striking valleys, drystone walls, and rolling green hills. 

As readers of this blog know, we recently returned from a 9-day tour of the Yorkshire Dales in the UK conducted through NH PBS (Public Broadcasting System). The trip was inspired by the PBS Masterpiece series All Creatures Great and Small centering around the rolling green valleys, stone-built villages, and actual filming locations.

Other TV shows and movies also have been filmed in the Yorkshire Dales including: Emmerdale, The Yorkshire Vet, Wuthering Heights, Calendar Girls, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The word dale, like dell, is derived from the Old English word, dæl. It shares this historical origin in the Nordic/Germanic words for valley (dal, tal) and occurs in valley names across Yorkshire and Northern England.

One thing you will notice when touring in the Yorkshire Dales are the miles and miles of dry stone walls. According to  online sources, there's over 5,000 miles (about 8,000 kilometers) of these walls, which are locally referred to simply as walls or field boundaries in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This iconic, mortar-less structures are the largest man-made feature in the Dales landscape. 

The construction of a dry stone wall is as straightforward as it sounds. This very traditional method of building structures from stone doesn't use mortar or cement to hold stones together. The stability of the walls comes from carefully selecting, shaping and interlocking the stones. The stone walls have traditionally been used for the boundaries of fields and churchyards or as retaining walls for terracing.

A herd of cattle in the Yorkshire Dales

Much of the Yorkshire Dales is rural and used for agriculture. Residents live in small villages and hamlets or in farmsteads. Sheep breeding and cattle rearing remain common. To supplement their incomes, many farmers have diversified, some now provide accommodations for tourists. A number of agricultural shows are held each year. During our tour, we attended the last one of the season in Pately Bridge. 

There are over 600,000 sheep in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, but these numbers have been declining. as farmers face steep increases in fuel, feed, fodder and medication costs. The average age of a British farmer is around 60. 

Tighter financial margins have led many traditional hill farmers to downsize or transition from sheep. Lamb and mutton demand in the UK has dropped over the last few decades. Also, trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand have eliminated tariffs and expanded import quotas, increasing competition for domestic sheep farmers in the UK market.

A flock of sheep in the Yorkshire Dales

Sheep outnumber humans (23,500 to 24,000) by roughly 30 to 1. The county of Cumbria has the most sheep in England, with an estimated 984,325 sheep across more than 3,000 holdings or farms. North Yorkshire has about 845,598 sheep across 3,169 holdings.

Young Swaledale sheep at Pately Bridge agricultural show

The classic local breed is the Swaledale sheep, known for its curved horns (on both ewes and rams) and distinctive black-and-white face marked with white around the eyes, like spectacles. 

Swaledale sheep are known for their ability to thrive in exposed locations with no need for fences. They can endure harsh, cold winters and forage on rough moorland and high-lying fells. These sheep are farmed for lamb, mutton and coarse wool used for carpets, rugs, and insulation. The well-recognized symbol of the Yorkshire Dales National Park features a Swaledale sheep head. 

There's no official number of villages in the Yorkshire Dales and counts vary depending on boundaries and if they include small hamlets and scattered farmsteads. Regional guides feature 67 total cities, towns and villages in the region. The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority notes that 24,000 people live across a scattered network of small market towns, individual farms and historic stone-built villages.

There's no definite winner as to which Yorkshire Dales village is the most picturesque. Several locations are widely celebrated as the best spots in the Yorkshire Dales. Among these is the village of Grassington with its honey-colored stone cottages, a bustling cobbled market square, independent shops. It's famous as a primary filming location for All Creatures Great and Small. We visited Grassington on the first day of our tour during the annual 1940s weekend.

Ribblehead Viaduct (not the Harry Potter one)

The Ribblehead Viaduct or the Batty Moss Viaduct is a landmark Victorian railway structure in the Yorkshire Dales National Park famous for its dramatic engineering and monumental scale across a harsh landscape. It's the longest and the third tallest structure on the Settle-Carlisle line standing 104 feet high and supported by 24 massive stone arches. (A viaduct is a long, high bridge-like structure with a series of arches, piers or columns that carries a road or railroad over low ground, valley or gorge.)

Landscape of the viaduct area

Designed by John Sydney Crossley, chief engineer of the Midland Railway, it spans 1,312 feet across the boggy Batty Moss and was built between 1869 and 1874 using mostly manual labor, a workforce of up to 2,3000 railway workers. Over 100 men died during construction from brutal weather, accidents and diseases. By the 1980s, heavy weathering and high maintenance costs led British Rail to propose closing and demolishing the line. A massive public campaign successfully lobbied to save the structure, leading to its monument protection. 

Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland

It's often mistaken for the Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland famous in Harry Potter films. The Jacobite Steam Train, known as the Harry Potter Hogwarts Express, crosses this viaduct four times daily during peak summer season. A good reason for a future trip to Scotland.

Visiting the Yorkshire Dales is well worth the experience if you enjoy dramatic natural landscapes, outdoor walking, historic structures and charming villages. However, due to time constraints, our tour presented limited opportunities for detailed exploration of this beautiful landscape.