Reeth is the unofficial capital of Swaledale — a substantial village around a large green, surrounded by some of the wildest and most evocative landscape in the Yorkshire Dales. The old lead mining remains around Gunnerside and Arkengarthdale give the high moors a haunting, post-industrial character found nowhere else in the Dales.

A genuinely characterful Dales village with an excellent folk museum and good pubs, Reeth is the best base for exploring Swaledale — wilder and less visited than Wharfedale, with a unique industrial heritage etched into the moorland.