Swaledale

Swaledale runs broadly from west to east, from the high moors on the Cumbria–Yorkshire boundary at the watershed of Northern England to the market town of Richmond, where the dale meets the lowlands.

From there, the valley runs briefly south then turns east at Thwaite to broaden progressively as it passes Muker, Gunnerside, Low Row, Healaugh and Reeth.

Swaledale is a typical limestone Yorkshire dale, with its narrow valley-bottom road, green meadows and fellside fields, white sheep and dry stone walls on the glacier-formed valley sides, and darker moorland skyline.

Occasionally visible from the valley bottom road are the slowly fading fellside scars of the 18th and 19th century lead mining industry.

Unlike Wensleydale it has no large settlements on the scale of Hawes or Leyburn, nor an obvious tourist hook such as the former's connection with James Herriot, and so, like Coverdale, it enjoys a quieter tone, especially as it is more remote compared to, say, Wharfedale, which is much further south and easily accessible from the West Yorkshire metropolis.

[8] The first weekend in August sees the area host the 'Ard Rock mountain bike festival, which is based in Reeth but uses bridleways and private land in both Swaledale and Arkengarthdale.

In a letter to Geoffrey Grigson of 17 January 1950, the poet W. H. Auden wrote, "My great good place is the part of the Pennines bounded on the S by Swaledale, on the N by the Roman wall and on the W by the Eden Valley".