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Walking along Green Lane to Hanlith (Walk 18)

THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERN DALES

This volume covers the southern- and western-facing catchments of the Yorkshire Dales – Wharfedale, Littondale, Malhamdale, Ribblesdale and Dentdale. It is an area of dramatic and contrasting landscape, for it is here that the main outcrop of Great Scar Limestone is revealed. To the north, and in the higher reaches of the hills, this gives way to the overlying distinctive stepped terraces of the Yoredales, while to the south east the darker millstones and sandstones of the South Pennines fringe the National Park.

Each valley has a character subtly different from that of its neighbours, and although none can be said to be truly representative, Wharfedale, together with its tributaries, perhaps more than any other, encapsulates the spirit of the Dales. From the source of the River Wharfe high on Cam Fell to Bolton Abbey, where it leaves the park behind, is a distance of some 30 miles (48km), and it is possible to walk close by the river’s banks for much of the way. Born out of an evocative wildness, the Wharfe tumbles in youthful exuberance between the steep and narrow flanks of Langstrothdale, but then, turning a corner, seems to find a different and more considered purpose. The hills step back to indulge its meandering course through an increasingly bucolic landscape of neatly walled pastures dotted with laithes and small steadings. The high ground encompasses the abrupt and arresting scenery of karst and the wild expanses of the open moors, both encroaching across an indeterminate boundary with the pastoral scene below. Its fickle tributary, the River Skirfare, can bubble boisterously at one point and then disappear completely within a few metres, while the Wharfe itself can swell from an innocuous stream to a thundering torrent after heavy rain.