Swaledale

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Swaledale is one of the northernmost dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in Northern England. It is the dale (valley) of the River Swale on the east side of the Pennines in the North Yorkshire.

Swaledale starts to the east of Nine Standards Rigg, a prominent ridge with nine ancient tall cairns on the Cumbria/Yorkshire boundary, and the main East/Weat Watershed of Northern England (to the west lies Kirkby Stephen and the Westmoreland Limestone Plateau).

The moors on the eastern flank of the Rigg's moorland become more and more concave as they descend, to become the narrow valley sides of upper Swaledale at the small village of Keld. From there, the valley runs briefly south then turns east at Thwaite to broaden progressively as it passes Muker, Gunnerside and Reeth. The Pennine valley ends at the market town of Richmond, where an important medieval castle still watches the important ford from the top of a cliff. Below Richmond, the valley sides flatten out and the Swale flows across lowland farmland to meet the Ure just east of Boroughbridge at a point known as Swale Nab. The Ure becomes the Ouse, and eventually (on merging with the Trent) the Humber.

From the North, Arkengarthdale and its river the Arkle Beck join Swaledale at Reeth. To the South, Wensleydale (famous for Wensleydale cheese) runs parallel with Swaledale separated by a ridge including Great Shunner Fell, and joined by the road over Buttertubs Pass.

In many ways, Swaledale is a typical limestone Yorkshire dale, with its narrow valley-bottom road, green meadows and fellside fields, white sheep and white stone walls on the glacier-formed valley sides, and darker moorland skyline. However, upper Swaledale is even more visually striking because of its large old limestone field barns and its profusion of wild flowers (due to the return to the practice of not cutting grass for hay or silage until wild plants have had a chance to seed). Only occasionally visible from the valley bottom road are the healing fellside scars of the 18th and 19th century lead-mining industry: the ruined stone mine buildings themselves are attractions in their own right, now, mysterious ruins the same colours as the landscape into which they are crumbling.

Sheep have always been an important commodity in Swaledale, which is probably best-known for lending its name to a breed of round-horned sheep. Traditional Swaledale products are woollens and Swaledale cheese; formerly made from ewe’s milk, but now made from cow’s milk. During the 19th century, a major industry in the area was lead mining.

Today, tourism has become important, and Swaledale attracts thousands of visitors a year, though it is often considerd to be less "spoiled" than the busier southern dales such as Wensleydale (with the large settlements of Hawes and Thirsk and the connection with James Herriot) or Wharfedale (further south still and more accessible from the West Yorkshire metropolis). It is very popular with walkers, particularly because the Coast to Coast Walk passes along it.