Wharfedale is one of the Yorkshire Dales in northern England, a valley followed by the River Wharfe for about 50 miles from North Yorkshire into West Yorkshire, past settlements including Buckden, Kettlewell, Grassington, Ilkley, Otley and Wetherby before opening into the Vale of York. Its U-shaped profile was cut by a glacier between about 18,000 and 12,000 years ago during the last ice age. The upper dale is carved from Carboniferous limestone of the Yoredale series, exposed in outcrops such as Kilnsey Crag, while the lower dale around Ilkley and Otley is underlain by millstone grit, visible at the Cow and Calf rocks on Ilkley Moor. Unlike much of the Dales, Wharfedale also carries significant woodland alongside its long-established pattern of stone-walled pasture.
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