The Yorkshire Dales is a beautiful and wide-open landscape of hills and valleys with some of nature’s most amazing rock architecture. You can see intricate networks of limestone pavement spread around an area that sits above a huge system of underground caves and caverns, like Gaping Gill and Alum Pot. Aside from being home to Overshadow, Britain’s hardest sport climb, the impressive Malham Cove is a beautiful natural amphitheatre, made by an ancient river slowly eroding its way into the limestone bedrock. The Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge takes you through some of this amazing scenery as you make an ascent of Pen y Ghent, Whernside and Inglebrough in one long walk that covers about the same distance as a marathon.

Further south are some excellent gritstone climbing venues up on the moors: Almscliffe has great bouldering and some classic climbs including Great Western, Caley is home to fine bouldering and short routes, Crookrise has top quality rock in a beautiful setting, Heptonstall Quarry has the striking line of Forked Lightning Crack and Ilkley offers you first class gritstone with a chance to look and wonder at the hard and bold line of New Statesman.