Hiking Through the Yorkshire Dales

The Yorkshire Dales offer idyllic landscape with lush green valleys criss-crossed by dry-stone walls. There are numerous picturesque villages and hamlets, often with little more than a pub and a handful of cottages and maybe a post office. Old farmhouses and stone barns can be seen on the sides of the valleys. Beautiful moorlands rise above the Dales often at 600m (2000 ft) or higher. This tour includes the whole of the popular long distance path, the Dales Way, running across the Yorkshire Dales National Park and on to the shores of Lake Windermere in the Lake District National Park.

The Dales Way is essentially a valley walk, crossing some of the best-loved landscapes in England. Surrounded by these amazing views, you can understand the long-held opinion of Yorkshire folk that there is absolutely nothing to compare with Yorkshire scenery. The small villages and farms of the Yorkshire Dales, with their dry-stone walls and outlying stone barns, are thought by many to be incomparable. Some go as far as saying if you walk nowhere else in England, walk here!

The Dales Way begins from the small attractive town of Ilkley, overlooked by Ilkley Moor and near where the River Wharfe emerges from Wharfedale. The route follows the river past the medieval ruins of Bolton Abbey and along the Strid ravine. You then pass through several pretty villages – Burnsall, Grassington, Kettlewell and Buckden. Climbing over wild open moorland you reach the highest point of the route at Cam Fell, at 518m (1647 ft).

You will find Dentdale to be quieter and more remote than Wharfedale. The walk passes through the lovely village of Dent with its cobbled streets then onto Sedbergh, a market town nestled under the steep slopes of the Howgill Fells. During the last two days of the tour, you walk through delightful landscapes with small sheep farms before the land becomes more rugged and you are met by the stunning scenery of the Lake District.

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