Upper Dales

The Upper Dales in North Yorkshire cover the high, upland reaches of the Yorkshire Dales where streams begin and cut narrow valleys. Moorland plateaus give way to steep-sided dales through which the headwaters of the River Swale and its tributaries run. Dry-stone walls and scattered field barns mark old parish boundaries, and narrow packhorse bridges cross beck lines. On some upper slopes you will find the deep hollow of the Buttertubs, and hay meadows in the valley bottoms are still cut for winter fodder using a seasonal rota of common grazing and drying rigs.

Farming and former mineral working shape the area’s pattern of land use. Herds of Swaledale sheep are kept on summer fells; traces of nineteenth-century lead mines survive as spoil heaps, hushes and ruined engine houses. Rights of way and access land allow long walks along ridge tops and into remote hollows, while small village hubs offer services for local communities and visitors. The landscape remains one of working upland farming, remnant industrial archaeology and river corridors that feed lower dales.