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Dales Rocks: geology and more!

The Yorkshire Dales National Park was designated in 1954 in large part due to its stunning geology. The Dales Rocks website has been designed to help you explore and learn more about this special part of the Yorkshire Dales.

Baxenghyll Gorge sees the River Doe flowing through folded greywackes on the Ingleton Waterfalls walk (Stephen Oldfield)
Smardale Gill Viaduct, built of local red Ashfell Sandstone. View looking south with the Howgills in the distance. © M. Byron
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Ribblesdale

An introduction to the fascinating geology of Ribblesdale, Chapel-le-Dale and Ingleborough

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Westmorland Dales

An introduction to the geology of the newest part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park

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Swaledale

An introduction to the geology of beautiful Swaledale

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Explore

Discover walks; geocaches and so much more. All the sites mentioned on the website are included on our interactive map.

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Thanks to generous funding from the ‘Stories in Stone’ project; the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme and the Tees-Swale: naturally connected programme, the Dales Rocks website currently covers the geographical areas around Ingleborough, Chapel-le-dale and Ribblesdale; the Westmorland Dales and Swaledale.

Read more about the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust and the Heritage Lottery Funded ‘Stories in Stone’ project on their dedicated websites.

Find out more about the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme, also funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, on the Friends of the Lake District website.

Find out more about the Tees-Swale: naturally connected programme, also funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, on the North Pennines AONB website.

The Ribblesdale part of the site was written by geologist and caver Stephen Oldfield. Read more about his exploits on his ‘Three Peaks Up and Under’ blog.

The Westmorland Dales part of the site was written by geologist and illustrator Elizabeth Pickett.

The Swaledale part of the site was written by Dr Stuart Jones. Stuart undertook his first degree in geology and closely followed by a PhD in sedimentology working on ancient fluvial sediments in the Spanish Pyrenees. After a few years working in the hydrocarbon industry as a geoscientist he moved back into academia first at the University of Southampton and then to his current position as an Associate Professor of Sedimentology in the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University. Stuart is passionate about Earth Sciences and has taught the subject to undergraduate and postgraduate students and has led many field trips and training courses for industry. He regularly undertakes Earth Science outreach into schools and has won many awards for his innovative outreach and teaching.

We hope to cover more areas of the national park in future years.