The Yorkshire Dales section of the Coast to Coast carries the walker eastwards from the high Pennine country around Kirkby Stephen into the long green valleys, limestone landscapes and stone-built villages of the Dales. The character of the walk changes markedly here. The mountains of the Lake District have been left behind, but the landscape remains wonderfully varied, with open moorland, limestone scars, hay meadows, field barns and the rivers that continue to shape these valleys.

Beyond Keld, the Coast to Coast traditionally offers two very different ways through Swaledale. The higher route climbs into the old lead-mining country above the valley, where ruined buildings, spoil heaps and workings survive from an industry that once transformed these remote hillsides. The lower route stays closer to the River Swale, passing through a gentler landscape of riverside paths, meadows, farms and villages. Both routes are explored in the articles that follow, revealing two contrasting sides of the same remarkable valley.