Dentdale

Dentdale Map (Opens in a new page).

Location: South Lakeland: Cumbria: Northwest Dales

River: River Dee

Principal Towns & Villages: Dent, Gawthorp, Cowgill

Dentdale is 16km (10.5miles) long and is in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria and forms the northwest corner of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Unlike most other dales, Dentdale takes its name from the village of Dent and not its river, the Dee.

A geological boundary between the carboniferous limestone of the Craven Dales and the older Silurian rocks of the Howgill Fells, known as the Dent Fault, runs along the valley.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, residents of Dentdale supplemented their incomes as part of a thriving hand-knitting industry.

The recreational long distance footpath of the Dales Way passes through Dentdale on its way to Bowness-on-windermere, Cumbria.

At the top of Dentdale the famous Settle to Carlisle Railway cuts across the top of the dale at Dent Head railway station.