If you haven't already become acquainted with the magnificent Yorkshire Dales, don't miss the opportunity in its 50th anniversary year.

Here's a beginner's guide to get you started.

Where are the Dales?

The Yorkshire Dales National Park covers a land mass of some 683 square miles of the central Pennine uplands. It includes the countryside lying to the north of Skipton, Settle and Ilkley, between the A65 to the west and the A1 to the east.

Map of the Yorkshire Dales, with main villages marked Thanks to the YDNP for the original.

How many dales make a National Park?

There are more than 20 individual Dales, each with its own character and atmosphere.

Some of the more familiar ones include:

• Dentdale: once farmed by Viking settlers.
• Malhamdale: with the dramatic Malham Cove above its tranquil Tarn.
• Swaledale: where the swift River Swale winds through pastures dotted with field barns.
• Ribblesdale: famous for the Three Peaks walk.
• Wensleydale: a familiar name for cheese, waterfalls and Castle Bolton.
• Wharfdale: with breathtaking countryside and Bolton Abbey.

The main dales include or are linked by smaller, less famous dales such as:
Airsdale; Bishopdale; Clapdale; Coverdale; Langstrothdale; Littendale; Raydale and Washburndale.

What makes the Dales unique

Each dale has a unique character, though of course all have a dale, or valley at its core.

They combine to give a blend of grassy valleys, tumbling waterfalls, a network of rivers and streams, topped by heather-covered bleak fells or bleak limestone crags.

Malham: photo by Walter Sommerville

It's rich with intricate patterns of dry-stone walls and field barns, and dotted with picturesque stone villages.

The Dales contain some of the most dramatic exposed limestone cliffs, gorges and a fretwork of limestone pavements in the UK. The hills are riddled with limestone caves dating back to the Ice Age.

A photographer's paradise, but it's not just countryside ... . the National Park is also home to 18,000 people, and a holiday destination for more than eight million tourists each year.

Share your Dale

If you live somewhere in the Yorkshire Dales, e-mail and tell us all about it, or send photos. We'd like to feature your Dale! Send photos, in jpeg format, or information about where you live, to: northyorkshire@bbc.co.uk.