As in similar locations across northern England, the steep-sided valley of the River Wyre was an ideal location for water-powered mills after the Industrial Revolution (i.e. the onset of mechanisation). The first of Dolphinholme's mills opened in 1784 to spin worsted yarn from Wyresdale wool. The last closed in 1926, but the village's heritage is still self-evident.

The valley is also dark, and though quaint to visit in 2007, it may have been a grim place in which to live and work two hundred years ago.