The Yorkshire Dales

Abstract

The Yorkshire Dales are founded primarily on Carboniferous limestone laid down around 300 million years ago. The Great Scar limestone tends to be dominant, especially around the Ingleton and Settle area, where it attains a thickness of around 200 m, displaying some beautiful limestone pavements at the surface. Above, and sometimes alternating with this limestone on the higher ground, sits the Yoredale Series of gritstones, sandstones and shales which, due to their varying granularity and weathering properties, often create a stepped landscape as well as supporting moorland environments. Fault lines create some distinctive features, while the whole of the Yorkshire Dales landscape is very much influenced by the last ice age, with many glacial features in evidence, from the broad ‘U’ shaped valleys to the presence of erratics and redirected streams and rivers.