ABSTRACT
Situated some 45 km north-west of the city of Leeds in northern England lies the village of Grassington near the river Wharfe. The river Wharfe is one of a series of rivers which rise in the Pennine uplands of northern England and flow eastwards to the North Sea. Grassington forms a ‘gateway’ to Upper Wharfedale, a 17 km steep-sided valley. Upper Wharfedale has one prominent right-bank tributary, the river Skirfare, occupying Littondale; other tributaries to the river Wharfe are a series of short, steepgradient streams or becks entering on the left bank. Wharfedale is one of the dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and has become attractive to geographers and tourists alike (Figure 1.1).
