Skipton and Ripon is one of the largest constituencies in the UK. Covering some 900 square miles it stretches across the Pennine dales of North Yorkshire and embraces a large part of the Dales National Park.
On its eastern boundary lies Ripon, one of the most ancient cities in England with its racecourse, its Cathedral St Wilfrid, and the Cistercian ruins of Fountains Abbey set in the 18th century water gardens of Studley Royal.
Skipton, once a mill town but now the springboard for tourism into the Dales and a lively market town. Its ancient symbol is the castle, the modern symbol includes the headquarters of the Skipton Building Society.
To the west, the constituency stretches to the Ribblehead Viaduct leading into Cumbria and to the towns of Bentham and Ingleton.
The Dales boast celebrated centres of natural beauty like Malham with its cove and tarn, the ancient market towns of Grassington, Pateley Bridge, Masham and Settle and literally hundreds of villages nestling in the valleys beneath the sweeping landscape of moor and fell.
Bolton Abbey, noted for its abbey ruins set on the valley of the Wharfe and its shooting moors is in the heart of the constituency. Tourism and agriculture – together with service industries, like care for the elderly form the economic backbone of the area, alongside small manufacturing centres in Skipton, Ripon, Pateley Bridge, and Bentham.
The Skipton and Ripon Constituency includes the following electoral divisions, under the North Yorkshire Council:
Aire Valley, Bentham and Ingleton, Boroughbridge and Claro, Glusburn, Cross Hills and Sutton-in-Craven, Masham and Fountains, Mid Craven, Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale, Ripon Minster and Moorside, Ripon Ure Bank and Spa, Settle and Penyghent, Skipton East and South, Skipton North and Embsay-with-Eastby, Skipton West and West Craven, Washburn and Birstwith, Wathvale and Bishop Monkton, Wharfedale