Litton, meaning village on a roaring stream or torrent, has a tiny village green. Crystal Beck and Potts Beck pour off the hills to the north of the river, and the Foss (force or waterfall) to the south. Old Litton snuggles below the Foss. Once a deer park, most of Litton lines the present road, the Queen’s Arms, the Post Office, the old post office, farm houses and their converted barns. There are stepping stones across the river on the footpath to Arncliffe, a ford, a wooden footbridge down a path from the green and an old stone bridge called New Bridge down a little lane off the road up to Halton Gill leading to the old monks road.  Between these crossings, the torrent still roars underground. 

Named for Hauk’s dairy farm, Hawkswick is the first settlement as you come up the dale from the Skipton-Kettlewell road on the tiny back lane across Wind Bank. In 1893, the vicar William Boyd described ‘the sunny hamlet of Hawkswick, sheltering under the hill, and trapping every ray of sun that shines in the valley throughout the day.’ There are signs of early medieval ploughing to be seen on the fellside here: long narrow terraces, called strip lynchets, formed by the plough.

The name of Halton Gill was first recorded in 1457 as Haltonghyll. The name derives from a combination of Old English and Old Norse and means the nook of land (or ravine) with a small valley by a farmstead and a stream. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Foxup and Hesleden.

At the very top of the dale, 'Foxup' means upstream with the foxes. This is where the River Skirfare begins its journey through the dale to join the Wharfe. Until quite recently there were three farms in Foxup; now only one remains. The hamlet is only a quarter of a mile from Halton Gill and the two places once shared both chapel and school. 

The name of Hesleden is first recorded as 'Eseldene' in a charter of Fountains Abbey in about 1206. The name means hazel valley from the Old English 'hæsel' and 'denu'.