Читать книгу Trail and Fell Running in the Yorkshire Dales. 40 runs in the National Park, including the Three Peaks онлайн

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Swaledale, a typical glaciated valley

Overlying the natural geology and geomorphology of the area is the influence of mankind over the past two thousand years. There are few places in the Dales that are untouched by human activity, the whole area being criss-crossed by dry-stone walls, roads, railway lines and settlements.

Since prehistoric times, through to later Roman and Monastic periods, people have moved through the Dales developing a system of paths and tracks that are still used today, albeit for different purposes. Drove routes established in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries created trails for transporting cattle and lead from the mines throughout the area, many of which are still in use today. Swaledale also has an ancient corpse road, along which the bodies of the dead were carried to a church for burial in consecrated ground.

The Romans were among the first to develop a network of roads, linking forts and towns to aid the movement of troops as they sought to subdue the native tribes. Later, these were used to access and exploit mineral resources from the region.