Coverdale - One of the Yorkshire Dales best kept secrets

Coverdale, one of the most picturesque of the upper dales, stretches for over thirteen miles from Coverhead in the West, where many rivulets cut deep into the peaty heathland near the source of the river Cover, to the cobbled market town of Middleham to the East - famous for its associations with Richard III, once an inhabitant of Middleham Castle, and Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who was known as the 'Kingmaker' due to his support of King Edward IV in the Wars of the Roses.

It is a narrow valley, steeped in history, home to old mines and packhorse trails. Many millennia ago, Coverdale was a glacial lake, but as there were no flowing glaciers scouring its sides to fill it with what would have become earth, it has no flat bottom and therefore was largely unsuitable for modern arable cultivation. However, at the beginning of the first millennium this part of the country was inhabited by the Brigantes tribes, who helped to cultivate the slopes by the formation of terracing, examples of which can still be seen in parts of Coverdale today.

Sheep and other livestock farming have long been a major part of the local economy and animal husbandry remains so to this day, but the town of Middleham is renowned for animals of a different kind, being an important racehorse training centre since the 18th Century.
 

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