River Wharfe in the context of Grassington

Wetherby (/ˈwɛðəbi/ WETH-ə-bee) is a market town and civil parish in the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire and lies approximately 12 miles (19 kilometres) from Leeds city centre, 12 mi (19 km) from York and 8 mi (13 km) from Harrogate. The town stands on the River Wharfe and, for centuries, it has been a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road midway between London and Edinburgh.

Wetherby Bridge, which spans the River Wharfe, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade II listed structure. The course of the Old Great North Road passes through the town and, as result of its situation on the road, as well as being a major cattle droving route from Scotland to London, many coaching inns were established in Wetherby which are still used by travellers today.

The Yorkshire Dales are a series of valleys, or dales, in the Pennines, an upland range in England. They are mostly located in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, but extend into Cumbria and Lancashire; they are entirely within the historic boundaries of Yorkshire. The majority of the dales are within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, created in 1954. The exception is the area around Nidderdale, which forms the separate Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The landscape of the Yorkshire Dales consists of sheltered glacial valleys separated by exposed moorland. The predominant rock is Carboniferous Limestone, which is particularly visible in the south-west in features such as Malham Cove. It is overlain in many areas by the Yoredale Series of alternating weak shales and hard limestones and sandstones, which give the dales their characteristic 'stepped' appearance. Most of the dales contain rivers, and the area contains seven primary catchments: the Swale, Ure, Wharfe, Aire, Nidd, Ribble, and Lune. There are several notable cave systems in the area, including part of the longest system in the United Kingdom, the Three Counties.

Wetherby Bridge is a scheduled monument and Grade II-listed bridge over the River Wharfe in Wetherby, West Yorkshire, dating from the 13th century. The bridge connects Micklethwaite on the south bank to the town centre on the north. It formerly carried the A1 Great North Road but now carries the A661 Boston Road leading to Boston Spa and the south.