The valley of Dentdale in Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

 and North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, takes its name from the village of Dent

Dent (Lonsdale)

Dent is a small village and civil parish in Cumbria, England, nestling in a narrow valley on the western slopes of the Pennines within the Yorkshire Dales National Park...

.

The Dent Fault cuts across the valley close to the village of Gawthrop, marking a geological boundary between the Carboniferous Limestone

Carboniferous limestone

Carboniferous Limestone is a term used to describe a variety of different types of limestone occurring widely across Great Britain and Ireland which were deposited during the Dinantian epoch of the Carboniferous period. They were formed between 363 and 325 million years ago...

 of Deepdale and the Craven Dales to the south and the older Silurian

Silurian

The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...

 and Ordovician

Ordovician

The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic Era, and covers the time between 488.3±1.7 to 443.7±1.5 million years ago . It follows the Cambrian Period and is followed by the Silurian Period...

 rocks of the Howgill Fells

Howgill Fells

The Howgill Fells are hills in Northern England between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, lying roughly in between the vertices of a triangle made by the towns of Sedbergh, Kirkby Stephen and Tebay....

 to the north.

The world famous Settle-Carlisle Railway

Settle-Carlisle Railway

The Settle–Carlisle Line is a long main railway line in northern England. It is also known as the Settle and Carlisle. It is a part of the National Rail network and was constructed in the 1870s...

cuts across the top of the dale at Dent Head.