Читать книгу Walking in the Yorkshire Dales: North and East. Howgills, Mallerstang, Swaledale, Wensleydale, Coverdale and Nidderdale онлайн

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Old miners’ cottages in Langthwaite (Walk 16)

The legacy of the ice can been traced throughout the Dales in characteristic rounded hills, straight U-shaped valleys and the dramatic cliffs of truncated spurs. The moving ice carried boulders long distances, and moulded underlying clay into distinctive egg-shaped hills called drumlins, which can be seen to fine advantage in Wensleydale and Ribblesdale. With the thaw, the unstable sides of overly steep valleys slumped in landslide, and layers of boulder clay were dumped along the base of valleys, allowing surface rivers to flow over limestone.

Some dales were dammed with terminal moraines that held back lakes, but all but two of these – Malham Tarn and Semer Water – have subsequently silted up or drained away. The deluge of meltwater cut spectacularly narrow ravines through the rock and created majestic waterfalls. Some of these still carry water today – although mere trickles by comparison with the former torrents of their creation – and are well worth looking out for.