Swaledale is one of the most northerly of the dales and it has perhaps the wildest, most unspoilt scenery in the National Park. Many of the villages and tiny hamlets - such as Gunnerside (from 'Gunnar's saetr') - still carry the names given to them by Viking farmers who settled here over a thousand years ago.

​

The heart of Swaledale is the River Swale, the fastest rising river in England. It flows through traditional hay meadows bright with wild flowers in the summer surrounded by miles of drystone walls and dotted with carefully preserved stone field barns. This pattern of field walls, barns and meadows is a special feature of Swaledale.

​

The peaceful, heather-covered hills above were once home to a thriving lead mining industry. When the industry collapsed in the late nineteenth century, up to half the population of the dale left, some to the textile mills and coal mines of Lancashire, others to new lives in America.