Craven, one of the few remaining Celtic names within the dales, is derived from ‘land of the crags’.

The landscape of the Craven Dales, together with the Three Peaks of Whernside, Pen-y-ghent and Ingleborough, is dominated by the influence of limestone, and includes some of the best examples of this type of scenery within the Yorkshire Dales National Park and within the United Kingdom as a whole.

The Three Peaks are composed of a succession of rocks that lie in almost level layers. Virtually all of the rocks (with the exception of some outcrops of the Ingletonian series in the Ingleton Glens and Silurian rocks in areas of Crummackdale and Ribblesdale) are of the Carboniferous age, 360-290 million years old.

The Great Scar limestone dominates the scenery around Ingleton and Settle, attaining a thickness of over 200m. The Yoredale series lies above the Great Scar limestone, with a total thickness of some 300m, and comprises bands of limestone along with layers of shale and sandstone in a repeating succession. Because the various layers have different degrees of resistance to erosion the slopes are stepped, as for example on the sides of Pen-y-ghent. Above the Yoredale series lies Millstone Grit, which is represented by small impervious dark caps on the principal hills.

Thin seams of coal occur within the shale of the Yoredale series. Coal has been extracted on the summit of Fountains Fell, and a number of small collieries and one large colliery were worked in the Ingleton area.

The presence of faultlines creates dramatic variations in the scenery. At Buckhaw Brow near Settle, on the line of the South Craven Fault, there is a striking contrast between limestone and gritstone scenery. The change in geology is also reflected in the composition of the drystone walls across the faultline.

The landscape was shaped by the Ice Ages. Ice covered the whole of the Dales, shaped the valleys into their current u-shaped form and lined the valley sides and bottoms with boulder clay. Glacial features of special interest include the Norber Erratics, to the north of Austwick, where boulders of Silurian slate broken by ice from Crummackdale were deposited on the limestone at a higher elevation. Some boulders retarded the process of erosion of the limestone below and now sit on small limestone plinths.  North Ribblesdale, to the south of Gearstones, has a notable drumlin field. Glacial retreat moraines occur, for example within Kingsdale, where the moraine impounded meltwater to form a temporary lake which is evidenced by the very flat valley floor within this dale and the shallow but steep banks at what would have been the lake’s margins.

Limestone pavements are a particularly well-developed feature within the Craven Dales and their surrounding uplands, examples occurring in many areas including on the side of Ingleborough. Further conspicuous surface features include the funnel-like depressions known as shakeholes, swallowholes or sinks, which are particularly well marked on the Ingleton side of the Ribblehead Viaduct.

In addition to the above ground landscape, an extensive underground landscape of cave systems exists in the Great Scar limestone. Water, sinking into the ground within the Great Scar limestone, re-emerges above the impervious slate layer below.  Some caves are accessed by large open shafts, such as those at Gaping Gill and Alum Pot. At Gaping Gill, Fell Beck plunges 103m into the shaft, creating one of the highest waterfalls in the UK.

The principal rivers of the Craven Dales include the River Ribble, flowing north to south from the head of Ribblesdale, where Gayle and Cam Beck join just below Selside, falling over Catrigg Force at Stainforth, to the edge of the National Park at Langcliffe and from there flowing south into Lancashire. Kingsdale Beck, which rises just above Kingsdale Head and which becomes the River Twiss, and the River Doe, which rises at the head of Chapel-le-Dale both flow in a south westerly direction, meeting at Ingleton close to the National Park boundary to form the River Greta, a tributary of the River Lune. The course of the latter two rivers is marked by a number of spectacular waterfalls, including Thornton Force, Pecca Falls, Beezley Falls and Snow Falls.