What is the difference between a Valley and a Vale?

Question

There are lots of places of nature beauty throughout the UK some of which are called valleys and others vales - they both seem geographically the same - but are they?

Answer 1

valley: a long depression in the surface of the land that usually contains a river
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=vale

In geography a vale is a wide river valley, usually with a particularly wide flood plain or flat valley bottom. Vales commonly occur between the scarp slopes of pairs of chalk downs, where the chalk dome has been eroded, exposing less resistant underlying rock, usually clay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vale

Answer 2

As per the answer above, think of a vale as just a gentler valley.

The origin of the two words is the same, (FR. Lat.) and I have yet to find a strict distinction between the two. In western North America, we often describe a vale as a coulee, another french word.

Answer 3

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A hill is an area that has a higher elevation than the area around it, while a valley is the land located between areas of higher elevation, where rivers often form. You could say the 2 are opposites in a way.