Littondale - Yorkshire Dales

It probably seems that all we do is go on holiday, but this is really not the case. Sadly. Our most recent jolly jape was to Littondale in the Yorkshire Dales. We arrived after a week of relentless rain, driving through floods and marvelling at the impromptu rivers running down the hills. We, however, had a pretty dry week and managed some walking and sightseeing. Plus a healthy amount of sampling at the local hostelries. The photo’s below are of Littondale and the local pub ‘The Queens Arms’ (we recommend for beer and food!). We stayed at Stonelands Farm Cottages and had a great week.

Our first foray out of the village was to Grassington where we rather confused by the shop fronts until we found out that it had been set up for filming a new adaptation of James Herriot’s book ‘All Creatures Great and Small’. So Darrowby/Grassington will be on the tv at Christmas we believe.

Our warm up walk was from Kettlewell to Starbotton along the river one side and back along the other side. It was a bit of a grey day but a lovely leg stretcher with a beer at each end!

A follow up walk took us from our doorstep along the river to Arncliffe and then up the hill where there should have been a magnificent view of Wharfedale on one side and Littondale on the other. Sadly, we just had a view of the inside of a cloud but it didn’t rain and we didn’t get lost on the moor so it was not all bad. The especially good bit was the pub at the end and then a swim and sauna before a lovely meal at the holiday cottage. There were a few moments of hilarity when we had to negotiate a farm track that thought it was a river, but we didn’t get wet feet so it all ended well.

Another memorable day out was to Malham Cove. The limestone pavement is where Harry Potter was filmed. It is such a busy spot normally, but we were on holiday outside of the school holidays and walked mid week so it was relatively quiet. We did a lovely circular walk, walking up to the limestone pavement and then around to Malham Tarn, followed by the Janets Foss waterfall. The waterfall had a good flow of water as had the Wharfe when we went to Grassington.

We had a day off from the walking boots and had a trip to Skipton. We could have spent loads of time there and gone to the castle and looked at the shops, but quite frankly we were a bit tired. Instead took a walk (!) along the canal and found the Castle Wood walk which was absolutely beautiful in all the autumnal colours. We ended up back at the wharfe where the canal joined onto the Liverpool-Leeds canal. I did find a quirky little fabric shop where I couldn’t resist some fabric for a bedroom blind, and also some that I just want to fix onto a frame and put on the wall - it might work, it might not, but I’m going to give it a go…..one day.

For our final day in Yorkshire we stopped off at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It’s not too far from where we live but we have not yet found time to go so took the opportunity as we had plenty of time on the way home. It’s lovely in autumn, but I guess it would be fantastic any time of year as long as it’s not raining! The sculptures didn’t disappoint and since we only allowed a couple of hours we didn’t really do it justice. Of course that means we will have to go again!