The Yorkshire Dales, known also as "The Dales", is the name given to an area of upland, in the North of England.
It was in 1954 that an area of 1,770 km² was designated the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Most of the National Park is located in North Yorkshire, though some lies within Cumbria. The park is 50 miles (80 km) north east of Manchester, with Leeds and Bradford lying to the south, Kendal to the west and Darlington to the east.
There are over 20,000 residents living and working in the park, which attracts over eight million visitors every year. The area as such has a large collection of activities for visitors. Many visitors come to the "Dales" for walking or exercise. The National Park is traversed by several long-distance routes including the Pennine Way, the Dales Way, the Coast to Coast Path and the latest national trail, known as the Pennine Bridleway. Cycling is also popular and there are several routes for cyclists.
The Park has its own museum, the Dales Countryside Museum, housed in a conversion of the Hawes railway station in Wensleydale which is loacated in the north of the Park. The park has 5 visitor centres located in important destinations in the park.
Many of the upland areas consist of heather moorland, used for grouse shooting in the months following August 12 each year, when the season opens.
The Dales is a collection of river valleys and hills in between them, rising from the Vale of York westwards to the hilltops of the main Pennine watershed.
"Dale" is deriven from a Nordic/Germanic word for valley, and occurs in valley names across Yorkshire, and northern England generally, but since the creation of the Yorkshire Dales National park, the name "Yorkshire Dales" has come to refer specifically to the western dales.
Most of the dales in the Yorkshire Dales are named after their respective river or stream, eg Arkengarthdale, formed by Arkle Beck. The well-known exception to this rule is Wensleydale, which is named after the town of Wensley rather than the River Ure, although an older name for the dale is Yoredale.
In fact, valleys all over Yorkshire are named in such a way but only the more northern Yorkshire valleys and only the upper, rural, reaches are included in the term "The Dales". For example, the southern border area lies in Wharfedale and Airedale. The lower reaches of these valleys are not usually included in the area, and Calderdale much further south, would rarely be referred to as part of "The Dales" even though it is a dale, is in Yorkshire, and the upper reaches are as scenic and rural as many valleys further north.
