About the local area
The valley of the River Swale begins in the west close, to Nine Standards Rigg, the strange collection of nine stone cairns built on the ridge of the Yorkshire and Cumbria border and runs eastwards to the historic town of Richmond.
Although one of the more remote valleys, it has a wealth of villages and hamlets to visit and explore and is a great favourite with fell walkers.
Indeed, Alfred Wainwright's famous Coast to Coast walk passes along Swaledale, but for those who don't want to make that full journey, there is plenty of peace and beauty to be had here.
This is also James Herriot country and fans of TV's All Creatures Great and Small might well recognise nearby Arkengarthdale from the show's title shots. The valley was also formerly the centre of the local lead-mining industry.
Along Swaledale lie the villages of Muker, where a Bronze Age burial was discovered and Gunnerside, a centre for the traditional dry-stone walls and stone-built barns and houses that are such a distinctive feature of the Yorkshire Dales.
Reeth, known as the capital of Swaledale, is the starting point for many of the most popular Dales walks and has three pubs!
Running parallel with Swaledale, to the south, is Wensleydale and the two are joined by the dramatic Buttertubs Pass, a high moorland road that passes crags and waterfall as it leads from one dale to the other.
