Bare tree, Ribblesdale

A dale in the dark

More than two dozen named valleys, or dales, make up the sleepy swath of northern England known as the Yorkshire Dales (seen here beneath a rather rare aurora). Some of their names are familiar from other contexts, like Airedale for its large, scruffy terriers and Wensleydale for its mild cheese. Others lean toward the literal, like Silverdale for its silvery-gray birch woods and Deepdale for its, well, depth. This somewhat spooky scene comes to us from Ribblesdale—named for the River Ribble, which flows 75 miles from the nearby Ribblehead Viaduct to the Irish Sea. Curious about the term 'Ribble'? Its origin is lost to history—but some linguists peg it to the Old English 'ripel' for rip, perhaps for the long rift it tears through the landscape.