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...

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]

1 November 2018 If you care about England's protected landscapes, please contribute to a really important independent Review of National Parks and AONBs (areas of outstanding natural beauty). We will be publishing our own response here soon, but you can make government aware of your views by completing this online survey by Tuesday 18 December 2018.

1 November 2018 Stuck for that special Christmas Gift? Or need something for another special occassion or birthday? You could buy someone special an Annual Membership of Friends of the Dales. Christmas gifts must be ordered by Tuesday 4 Decmeber to ensure posting in time for Christmas. Just fill in a membership form and pay here or ask about other ways to pay

31 October 2018 If you missed the mini conference on "How to attract and keep young people and families living, working and enjoying the Dales" recently, held at Settle, you can read the key speeches here.

Speeches from CDC Civic and FOTD event S[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [1.2 MB]

31 October 2018 Dalesbus Winter Timetable just launched! You can download it below.

WinterDalesBus 2018.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [5.7 MB]

29 October 2018 New Policy statement on Wildlife and Biodiversity added Click here

15 October 2018 Press coverage of the car congestion issue at Malham in the Craven Herald

2 October 2018 If you use or support rural buses you might be interested in the campaign being run by Friends of Dalesbus to encourage the Department of Transport to award each National Park in England £100,000 per year under a proposed National Park Sustainable Transport Fund. This campaign is supported by local MPs Alex Sobel (Leeds North West) and John Grogan (Keighley).

Our Trustee Wilf Fenten has written in a personal capacity to his MP, and has provided a sample letter below if you also wish to support this campaign. You can search for contact details of your own MPs etc here.

Template letter National Park Sustainabl[...]
Microsoft Word document [16.4 KB]

2 October 2018 We are very disappointed that National Parks and AONBs are NOT being excluded from Government plans for possible locations to store nuclear waste underground. We support the efforts of Campaign for National Parks, and many kindred organisations, to persuade MPs to exclude these precious landscapes from the National Policy Statement when they debate it in the Autumn. Read news coverage here and the letter to Richard Harrington MP, Minister for Business and Industry (co-signed by Friends of the Dales) below.

Open letter to Minister for Business and[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [194.8 KB]

1 October 2018 We had a briliant turnout of over 50 members and guests at our AGM on Saturday 22 September at Langcliffe near Settle. Lots of good comments, ideas and cake too! The Accounts were approved and a full Board of Trustees elected, with our Chairman Mark Corner undertaking the role for a further one year.

15 August 2018

Our Trustees Annual Report & Accounts for 2017-2018 is available to download below. We'll provide some piecharts and illustrations at our AGM (see events page) on 22 September at Langcliffe to cover the financial detail, plus as a illustrated talk by our Chairman, Mark Corner to pick out the highilghts of the year and plans for the future.

Friends of the Dales Trustees Annual Rep[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [12.2 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 a talk about Dales barns and their conversion to housing/holiday lets, at 2:30 pm on Weds 14 November in Langcliffe. All welcome, small charge for non members - 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