YORKSHIRE DALES

Most of the world has seen something of the Yorkshire Dales in the movies. Swaledale, Wharfedale and Wensleydale are the best places for a director to find farming landscape. Roads are narrow and mostly bordered by stone walls just high enough and wide enough to keep sheep from escaping. Cottages of the same stone used to make the walls are arranged on landscapes that one can imagine might have been done by a movie set designer. The farm country and castle photographs were taken while I was on a long drive from Masham to Muken to Richmond and back to Masham. Castle ruins dot the landscape. Middleham Castle was the home of Richard III. Castle Bolton was the place where Elizabeth I imprisoned her half-sister Mary. Richmond castle, one of the most elaborage castles when it was standing intact in the middle of the town by the same name, perches high on a bluff above a meandering river. It’s easy to see why poets and painters and photographers fall in love with this area.

Swaledale’s sheep are the basis of the region’s prosperity. These hearty creatures graze on the wild higher slopes in harshest weather. RICHARD THIRD'S CASTLE AT MIDDLEHAMRIVER WHITY GILLVILLAGE OF MUKERSWALE DALEDALE BY THE RIVER SWALESWALE DALESWALE DALE NEAR MUKERLOOKING DOWN TO THE RIVER FROM RICHMOND CASTLERICHMOND CASTLE