Dent

Dent has only a small number of places to stay, in keeping with its size, but what is on offer suits the village's quiet, unhurried character well. The George and Dragon and the Sun Inn both provide rooms right on the cobbled main street, putting guests within easy reach of the village's pubs, shop and church without needing a car for the evening. Further out, Dentdale and the surrounding villages of Cowgill and Gawthrop have farmhouse bed and breakfasts and converted barns offering self-catering stays, many with direct access to the Dales Way or views up towards Whernside. Sedbergh, a few miles east and a market town in its own right, offers a wider choice of guesthouses, inns and holiday cottages for visitors who want more facilities within easy reach, while still being close enough for day trips into Dentdale. Booking ahead is worthwhile during the summer walking season and around local events, since the number of rooms in the village itself is genuinely limited. Whatever the choice, the appeal is much the same: waking up somewhere quiet, with the River Dee, the fells and some of the least crowded corners of the Yorkshire Dales National Park right on the doorstep.

Dent rewards slow exploration on foot, whether that means pottering around the village or heading out into Dentdale and up onto the surrounding fells.

• Dent village and its cobbled streets — wander the narrow lanes past whitewashed cottages, the old market cross, and the blacksmith's shop, much of it unchanged in appearance for generations.
• Adam Sedgwick memorial — a large boulder of pink Shap granite, hauled from the Lake District, stands as a fountain and memorial to Dent's most famous son, the pioneering Victorian geologist Adam Sedgwick.
• Dent railway station — on the Settle-Carlisle line, this is the highest operating mainline station in England at around 1,150 feet above sea level, though it lies some four miles from the village itself along a scenic riverside walk.
• Dentdale and the Dales Way — the long-distance Dales Way footpath runs the length of the dale, giving easy, well-signed walking beside the River Dee between drystone-walled meadows.
• Whernside — one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks can be climbed directly from Dentdale via the ancient Craven Way packhorse route, a quieter approach than the popular Ribblehead start.
• Flintergill Nature Trail — a old packhorse lane climbing out of the village onto Flintergill Outrake, with information panels on the dale's natural history and wide views back over the valley.
• Dent Brewery — a small, remote brewery founded in 1990 in the hamlet of Cowgill, three miles up the dale, supplying cask ales to Dent's own pubs.

The Sun Inn, a 300-year-old pub on the cobbles near St Andrew's Church, keeps a no-frills, traditional Dales atmosphere and was the original outlet for Dent Brewery's cask ales. The George and Dragon, the brewery's tap house, serves hearty home-cooked food alongside its award-winning beers and ciders in front of open fires. A village shop and a couple of small cafes cover daytime provisions, and Dent Brewery itself, based a few miles up the valley in Cowgill, has built a strong reputation among real ale drinkers for a brewery in such a remote spot.

Dentdale offers some of the more peaceful camping in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, with sites tucked along the valley floor beside the River Dee and beneath the slopes of Whernside and Rise Hill. As with the rest of England, wild camping remains illegal without the explicit permission of the landowner, so it is worth sticking to established campsites and caravan parks, several of which sit within a short walk or drive of Dent village itself. The valley's steep sides and narrow lanes mean pitches are often small and sheltered rather than expansive, with dry-stone walls, mature trees and the sound of the river giving many sites a genuinely secluded feel compared with busier parts of the Dales. Ground conditions can be wet underfoot outside the summer months, so a good pitch, decent waterproofing and sturdy boots for exploring the surrounding fells are worth packing. Late spring to early autumn is generally the best window for camping here, when the weather is more settled, days are longer for walking up to Whernside or along the Dales Way, and the meadows along the valley floor are at their greenest. For those who would rather skip the tent, a growing number of glamping options in and around Dentdale, from shepherd's huts to converted barns, offer a more comfortable way to experience the same views and quiet surroundings, often with the added bonus of a proper bed and a wood burner for cooler evenings. Whichever way visitors choose to stay, Dentdale's relative remoteness compared with the honeypot dales further east means campers can expect a slower pace, darker night skies away from major towns, and easy access to some of the quieter walking routes onto the Three Peaks and the surrounding fells.