Yorkshire Dales races

Limestone country: walled pasture, long green lanes, and the three well-known summits above Ribblesdale. The ground drains better than the Peak or the North York Moors, so the Dales stay runnable when other places are wading, but the tops are open, exposed and boggier than the valleys suggest — Whernside and Ingleborough are not the pastoral picture the dales floor gives you.

This is home ground for British ultra running. The races here start at half marathon and run to well over two hundred kilometres, and almost every one of them expects you to navigate. That is not a formality on the Dales tops in poor visibility, where the walls run out and the ground stops giving you clues.

Winter racing here is serious. The Fellsman and the northern Spine legs cross this ground in the coldest months, and the wind on the ridges between Great Knoutberry and Fountains Fell has nothing to slow it down. In summer it is some of the best running in the country, with the added trap that the limestone reflects heat and the water sinks straight through it — carry more than you think.

Yorkshire Dales trail running routes (71) with free GPX, if you want to run the ground before you race it.