Kingsdale is a valley on the western edge of the

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales is an upland area of the Pennines in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Yorkshire, England, most of it in the Yorkshire Dales National Park created in 1954. The Dales comprise river valleys and the hills ri ...

National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

in northern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The name Kingsdale derives from a combination of

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

and

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

(''Kyen'' and ''Dael'') which means ''The valley where the cows were kept''. Humans were active in Kingsdale from 6,700 BC onwards. Evidence of fire-pits used by hunter-gatherers have been found in the dale. The larger part of the valley lies within the county of

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

but its highest reaches fall just within

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

. It is defined by the hills of

Whernside Whernside is a mountain in the Yorkshire Dales in Northern England. It is the highest of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, the other two being Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent. It is the highest point in the ceremonial county of North YorkshireMickle Fel ...

to its east and

Gragareth Gragareth is a mountain straddling the border between Lancashire and North Yorkshire in England. At , its summit is the second highest point in the post- 1974 county of Lancashire. The highest point in modern Lancashire is Green Hill (one metr ...

to its west. Kingsdale is drained by the south-westward flowing Kingsdale Beck which assumes the name

River Twiss The River Twiss is a river in the county of Yorkshire, England. The source of the river is Kingsdale Beck which rises at Kingsdale Head at the confluence of Back Gill and Long Gill in the Yorkshire Dales. Beneath Keld Head, it changes its name ...

before joining the

River Doe The River Doe is a river in North Yorkshire, England. The river's source is near God's Bridge close to the settlement of Chapel-le-Dale and flows through Twisleton in a south-westerly direction to Ingleton, where it meets the River Twiss to fo ...

at Ingleton to become the River Greta. The single minor public road which serves the valley is followed by the Yorkshire Dales Cycle Way. There are several nationally important caves within the valley (such as

Rowten Pot Rowten Pot is one of several entrances into the long cave system that drains Kingsdale in North Yorkshire, England. Its entrance is a shaft some long, wide, and at the southern end deep. Description A stream enters from just below the surf ...

and Yordas Cave) and the impressive resurgence of

Keld Head Keld may refer to: * Keld, Cumbria, England *Keld, North Yorkshire, England *Variation of Kjell (name), a Danish given name * KELD (AM), a radio station (1400 AM) licensed to El Dorado, Arkansas, United States * KELD-FM KELD-FM (106.5 MHz) is ...

References

Sources

External links

Video of the flash flooding of one of the rivers in Kingsdale after heavy rains
Craven District Valleys of North Yorkshire Valleys of Cumbria Yorkshire Dales {{Craven-geo-stub