We are the only membership charity campaigning for the protection and enjoyment of the Dales

Friends of the Dales is the brand name of the Yorkshire Dales Society, a registered charity. Please help us to keep the Dales special and vibrant for years to come!

Click to sign up to our regular email newsletter full of topical stories about the Dales!

Help the Dales - Become a Friend of the Dales today!

We really need your support to help keep the Dales special and vibrant for years to come. We are thrilled that over 200 people have signed up to become Friends over the last financial year - a fantastic boost to our membership and the clout we have as a campaigning charity! Thank you to all our Friends for their support!

Please join us or donate to support our charitable work to protect the Dales - you can use our secure online payment - and you can Gift Aid your contibution too! Join us or Donate

Already a Friend - You can renew online!

Existing members of Friends of the Dales/Yorkshire Dales Society - you can now renew your subscriptions or make a donation online using our secure online payment - just go to Renew Online

Follow us - on facebook, twitter and instagram for fantastic photos of the Dales, and more.

Read about our campaigns and comments on major planning applications affecting the Dales.

Latest News...

9th February 2019. Many thanks to all who made today's 'Community Action in Addingham' event such a success. Despite the threat of poor weather a good turnout enjoyed a fascinating walk around the village of Addingham, guided very ably by Don Barrett, author of Walks around Addingham. We saw members of the Addingham Environment Group in action working on litter picking and woodland maintenance. In the afternoon, Prof Rick Batterbee gave us a fascinating talk on 'The big environmental issues: thinking globally, acting locally' and decribed the impressive iniatiatives being taken in the village to encourage wildflower propagation, manage the becks, and to reduce the village's carbon footprint. Thanks to Don, Rick, and Jonathan White for organising our grand day out in Addingham, a village well worth a visit.

4th February 2019. CPRE has issued an insightful analysis on the need to improve access to our National Parks. See the CPRE report, and particularly the link to the detailed maps. This has been covered in an interesting article in The Guardian including comments by our VP Colin Speakman. The article has generated some interesting letters in The Guardian.

16 January 2019. Our article in the Winter edition of the Yorkshire Dales Review on Barn Conversions in the National Park, which has generated some press coverage.
FOTD-YDR-Barns.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [1.5 MB]

14 January 2019 Our current Chair, Mark Corner, is stepping down at the 2019 AGM after four very successful years, so we are seeking a new person to fill this very important and rewarding role! If you or someone you know are interested, check out the info downloads below. Mark is very happy to work with a new person in the run up to the AGM in September.

Seeking a new Chair - Overview by Mark C[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [572.0 KB]

Further details - Chair of Friends of th[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [796.7 KB]

14 January 2019 We have designed a short MEMBERSHIP SURVEY which will help us plan for the future success of the charity. We take your views very seriously and would be very pleased if you could complete this survey. It is for members only and a paper version has been included in the Winter Review magazine sent out early January 2019. Please only respond once - online here or via post using the survey and Freepost envelope in the magazine. The survey only takes a few minutes. To go to the survey please click here

Thank you very much

The results will be published in the Spring Review

Farming reminiscences by Alan Lord
14 January 2019 Alan Lord, member of Friends of the Dales, sent us these fascinating memories of early life helping on the farm (first published in the Westmorland Gazette).
Series of articles by Alan Lord.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [605.6 KB]

17 December 2018 This is Friends of the Dales response to the call of evidence by the Glover Review of England's National Parks and AONBs, submitted today.

FOTD - Glover Response.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [40.8 KB]

11 December 2018 The Yorkshire Dales National Park Management Plan 2019-2024 - the single most important document for a National Park - has now been published. Friends of the Dales contributed to the developemnt of the plan and will play a role in holding to account those bodies who are responsible for its delivery. The plan can be found here: YDNP Management Plan

6 December 2018 Local press coverage of a crtical National Park Authority planning meeting on 11th December to consider controversial applications to convert barns, incluing comments from Friends of the Dales. See Richmondshire Today

20 November 2018 Trustee Nancy Stedman spoke at a well attended joint meeting with North Craven Heritage Trust at Langcliffe last week. Nancy has been researching the impact of converting agricultural barns in the Dales to local occupancy housing or holiday lets in the light of recent changes to National Park policy. You can view Nancy's presention as a PDF download below.

Barn conversions in the Yorkshire Dales.[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [7.4 MB]

8 November 2018 Next year we'll be celebrating the 70th anniversary of the legislation that created national parks in England and Wales. If you are interested in social and political history, you might enjoy reading two original Reports (Dower and Hobhouse) which led to the 1949 Act (National Parks and Access to the Countryside) - downloadable below.

National Parks in England and Wales John[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [3.8 MB]

Report of the National Parks Committee H[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [8.7 MB]

31 October 2018 Dalesbus Winter Timetable - download it below.

WinterDalesBus 2018.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [5.7 MB]

For earlier news see

News Archive 2018 and News Archive 2017

Our charitable work

Campaign

We have a good track record - for over 35 years - in campaigning on issues of crucial importance to the Dales. These include affordable housing, rural bus services, biodiversity, green lanes, Dales farming and landscape conservation - plus many others!

Learn more

Protect

We keep a watching brief on what is happening in the Dales, lobby government and intervene where we believe appropriate. For example, we monitor significant planning applications in the Dales and comment on many each year - supporting those we believe are right for the Dales

Learn more

Enjoy

We run varied walks and talks throughout the year

Vibrant Communities - free guided visits to Dales towns and villages organised and led by local members

Dales Insights - afternoon talks and free shorter guided walks

Classic Countryside - free longer guided walks with an extra "something special"

Focus on the Dales - full day event on a topical Dales subject

Come and join us, most are free to all! See Upcoming Events

Learn more

Two of our Key Projects

DalesBus

DalesBus services run on Sundays and Bank Holidays through the summer (and some in the winter) across the Yorkshire Dales, llinking into bus and train services from across the region.

So you can enjoy the Dales in the most environmentally friendly way!

DalesBus is run by our social enterprise company the Dales & Bowland CIC. Volunteers organise, fundraise and publicise the services, but the buses themselves are run by bus companies or community providers. Full timetables - see DalesBus

Learn More

Capturing the Past

Capturing the Past is our fantastic three year project to work with people and groups in the Ingleborough Dales area to train them to catalogue and digitise their own local history archives and make these available to the public through a new website.

Our archive project is being funded through Stories in Stone, a four year programme of conservation and community projects concentrated on the Ingleborough area. The scheme has been developed by the Ingleborough Dales Landscape Partnership and is supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Yorkshire Dales Community Archives

Learn More

This website is operated by the Yorkshire Dales Society, a registered charity (Charity Number 515384) and a company limited by guarantee (Company Number 1822908).

Our Charitable Objects are 1) To promote for the benefit of the public, the conservation of the landscape, biodiversity and cultural heritage of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and adjacent areas, and the social and economic wellbeing of its local communities;and to encourage others to engage with,understand,enjoy and protect these areas, and 2) In pursuance of the above, to advance the education of the public.

Everyone is welcome at our events, members and non members - see Upcoming Events for more information. Our next event is on Saturday 23 March in the lovely village of Askrigg. All welcome - see event entries.

There are many ways to Support our Charity and be a Friend of the Dales, to help keep the Dales special and vibrant for years to come.

Join us as a member

Make a donation

Leave a gift in your will

Help as a volunteer at our events

Our Business members are very valuable to us and we thank them all. For a list of all these businesses, or for more information on the benefits of business membership, click HERE

Alastair Humphreys

Our Patron

says :

"it's more beautiful than you realise; the people are open and friendly and have time for you; your phone might not work which is a positive as you'll have more time - slow down and enjoy the silence".

Alastair’s quest for adventure began young. Aged 8, he completed the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge over 26 miles