Yorkshire Dales – places to visit off the beaten track??

[seadragon]

Hi All,

My partner and I and the dogs will be in the Dales for a week from tomorrow.

I know the area a bit as my partner and I stayed in Aysgarth a few years ago, so visited the falls and also Richmond and Hawes, the Wensleydale Cheese factory and Hardraw Force, all places we will visit again but I was wondering if anyone can recommend anywhere else?

We preferably want to avoid busy/family-friendly kind of places. Somewhere quaint, unique, out of the way where we can take our 3 dogs and not have to deal with too many towns with traffic etc etc.

Any tips much appreciated. We will be based in a small village about 10 miles N.E. of Hawes

Many thanks

[RicksAlfas]

Dent's a pretty village.
Bolton Abbey, the Strid and the Cavendish Pavillion won't be "too busy" mid week now the schools are back.
Ingleborough Cave is good, but probably not dog friendly.
Ribblehead Viaduct.
Three Peaks obviously (one a day!).
Malham Cove.
Eden Camp at Malton.
York!

Off the beaten track is a bit tricky really as off the beaten track in The Dales is a farmers field.
Enjoy it though, it's a lovely spot!

[seadragon]

Thanks for that. I realised after I posted that the Dales are themselves a bit off the beaten track, so you are right, any more off the track I would be ‘green-laning’

Cheers again I would make a note of those, I think we have done the viaduct but we can do that again, awesome.

[supersport]

Pretty much anywhere you stop and start walking is quiet once you are more than a few feet from the car park, not that many people seem to venture very far from their cars and the local pie shop.

We did an excellent walk the other week, out across the fields in a round trip from Kirklington (near Bedale) and then a two minute drive down the road for an excellent lunch at the Fox & Hounds in Carthorpe.

Didn't see another sole all morning, perfect.

Can provide a link to the walk if interested, about 7.5 miles in stunning country side.

[seadragon]

supersport said:

Pretty much anywhere you stop and start walking is quiet once you are more than a few feet from the car park, not that many people seem to venture very far from their cars and the local pie shop.

We did an excellent walk the other week, out across the fields in a round trip from Kirklington (near Bedale) and then a two minute drive down the road for an excellent lunch at the Fox & Hounds in Carthorpe.

Didn't see another sole all morning, perfect.

Can provide a link to the walk if interested, about 7.5 miles in stunning country side.

Thanks, a link would be great. Bedale sounds familiar.

Hardraw Force is cool if anyone heads to that area. The only way to access the falls is by walking through the pub there, the falls are in the massive back lawn (if you can call it that) and assuming the pub is still there then the food was amazing too, so a good place all round

[supersport]

seadragon said:

Thanks, a link would be great. Bedale sounds familiar.

Hardraw Force is cool if anyone heads to that area. The only way to access the falls is by walking through the pub there, the falls are in the massive back lawn (if you can call it that) and assuming the pub is still there then the food was amazing too, so a good place all round

Link: here

[balders118]

I did a very nice walk from Hebden around a big loop to Grassington earlier this year. Very nice walk, about 8 miles, takes you through feilds, past an old quarry and has nice scenery all the way. Plenty of places in Grassington to get a nice drink/lunch/dinner, then you can walk back along the river to Hebden. Very Nice, probably 10 miles ish in total.

Edited by balders118 on Friday 7th September 16:06

[seadragon]

Great, thanks to the link and the Hebden mention. Is Hebden at the bottom of a really steep hill, I think we rested next to it once as it was raining and we parked under some underpass thingi?. I think there was a pub a few hundres metres up the road.

Nope I am thinking of Beggars Bridge in the Yorks Moors d'oh.

Thanks for the tips all

[RicksAlfas]

Hebden's got a gold postbox at the minute!
It is a good walk and the old mines are very interesting to walk through.

[seadragon]

Great sounds perfect, thanks a bunch for the info

[Rob Dicky]

This is remote

http://www.tanhillinn.co.uk/

[Group N]

Just outside Masham and hopefully should be quiet. Also cross the road for walks in those woods.

http://www.hackfall.org.uk/

[Zad]

Even the really touristy places are pretty nice at this time of year. Not many people around, still a bit of warmth (yeah well...) and daylight.

East of the A1:
Go via Sutton Bank http://goo.gl/maps/i1Bni (nice view and good place for a picnic)
Down to Helmsley http://goo.gl/maps/O3dhs (Castle, plus pubs)
To Rievaulx Abbey http://goo.gl/maps/dh5w0
And Byland Abbey (next to a nice pub) http://goo.gl/maps/hL6Uj
Kilburn has the workshops of Robert (Mouseman) Thompson's craftsmen, with a decent shop.

West of the A1:
Masham, both Black Sheep and Theakstons have visitor centres http://goo.gl/maps/1SGr6
Jervaulx Abbey. (Small for an abbey, quiet) http://goo.gl/maps/PTQ7y
Fountains Abbey (definitely not small) near Ripon: http://goo.gl/maps/WzZ6o
Richmond and Leyburn (not far from Jervaulx) both have castles.

[hot66]

some good walks based around Reeth , Gunnerside etc ... long walk up Fremington out of Reeth dropping back down to Langthwaite. Have some beers in Grinton

[bouldster]

head out of hawes past the buttertubs it's one of top gears best driving roads!

[seadragon]

oh yes buttertubs pass, been there, will do it again, great driving road for sure and thanks to the other suggestions, rivault, tan hill etc

thanks again, long drive so off to bed :-)

[balders118]

After mentioning Grassington yesterday I've decided I'll go there for a walk today. Great weather for it!

[seadragon]

Hi All

Thanks for the tips, had a good time.

Weather was pretty bad most of the time but basically did a pub crawl with the dogs the whole time (no complaints).

The house we rented was in Gunnerside (good location and the local pub isn¡¦t too bad).

Ribble Head viaduct (did that again and it was great).

Green Dragon pub and falls in Hardraw (lovely old style pub with beams, fire, good food and also having the falls in the back garden). Would highly recommend.

Hawes, busy little town, good for supplies, ie, food and also outdoor clothing and petrol (Wensleydale cheese factory is there too, worth a visit).

Tan Hill pub. Amazing location and food/drink is good. Lower level has huge sofas to chill out on a nice cold day. Worth a visit but don¡¦t expect good customer service, we went there twice and both times were treated as an inconvenience.

Askrigg, beautiful little village/town, filmed some of James Herriot series there.

Muker (pronounced Moo-ker). Great little village and nice pub (The Farmers Arms) with great service (and good food I am told by many).

Richmond. Large market down but good to get suppliers and to have lunch etc. (same applies to Leyburn, similar type of town).

Aysgarth Falls (as seen in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Nice falls, good little walk, worth a visit. The village is a good place to base yourself if you go for a trip.

There are many other villages etc but the ones above were the favourites. Many of the others we avoided seemed to be infested with bikers, cyclists and old people (mainly old people, they were all over the place and a total menace on the road and when walking about ļ).

If you plan to go up there for a break and want somewhere beautiful and in a good place for visiting others I would recommend Aysgarth, Gunnerside, Askrigg (if you don¡¦t want to be in a large town).

[burriana]

Nice, useful summary, thank you