Inspiration & ideas
Calming spaces - Quaker meeting rooms
Did you know there are historic houses through-out the Yorkshire Dales you can freely wander into, sit down and just enjoy the peace and tranquil feeling? Where you are welcome to just retreat from the world for a little while? You'll find them in Airton near Malham, Settle, Sedbergh, Countersett and Bainbridge. They are Friends Meeting Houses, part of the Quaker movement, open and welcome to all.
You don't need to be a Quaker to enter and enjoy t…
Heather and the beauty of the hills
Lucky charms for a queen, witches brooms and roofs: Have you started to spot Heather in bloom yet? For much of the year you might not really notice it, and then it suddenly blooms and the whole landscape changes colour and feel. It’s a very hardy, wind-resistant plant so thrives on the open moorland, often living over 20 years, where nothing much else survives.
The first heather to bloom, around the end of July, is bell heather. Most of the common heath…
Strange place names
Which place names make you smile? Whenever we’re heading over to Settle, my very tolerant husband has to put up with me gleefully snickering as I repeat the name Giggleswick; wriggling in the passenger seat as we pass Wigglesworth and then clapping as we reach Clapham…v tiresome!
But it does make you wonder how these places ended up with amusing-sounding names so without more ado here are some of the finest in the Yorkshire Dales:
- Wiggl…
Sleeping elephants, books, fine foods & wool
Sleeping elephants, books, fine food & wool: snuggled beneath the Howgills, straddling Cumbria and Yorkshire lies Sedbergh. Its address is Cumbria but we happily claim it as 'ours' since it's now within the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Driving towards Sedbergh, it's hard not to get distracted by the incredible views. Wainwright said the Howgill fells look like a 'herd of sleeping elephants' and I'd agree, although when we were young we used to say '…
Family traditions
Do you have anything you do every year, any family traditions in the Yorkshire Dales? In August every year we have a family tradition, of climbing 'our hill'. Of course it's not 'our' hill, and it's not as if there aren't plenty of other hills to climb in the Yorkshire Dales. This one is just special to us.
The name and location of the hill isn't the important part of this annual expedition. It's the idea that every year without fail we follow the same tr…
6000 years of sheep: influencing our language and law
Records show that wool was bought and sold in Babylon as early as 4000 BC. Babylon actually means “land of wool”. The Bible includes many references to sheep, and they feature in ancient legends such as the Golden Fleece.Wild sheep were used for food and clothing. The Britons were already farming sheep when the Romans invaded, bringing with them larger sheep with finer, whiter wool.
The Vikings brought their own breeds of black-faced sheep with horns. These wer…
Mysteries of the Knights Templar
Heard of the powerful & mysterious Knights Templar? Between Swinithwaite & Aysgarth on the A684 is a little known site, which once was the setting for the Preceptory of the Knights Templars. It's now almost a thousand years since the order was founded and yet we're still fascinated by these early medieval knights.
I had to look up the meaning of a preceptory - it's a monastery of the Order of the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem. If you take the footpath up to this little …
Nine Standards Rigg
Your theories on this curious landmark? It's Nine Standards Rigg, an odd and distinctive landmark overlooking Kirkby Stephen on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, a welcome sight for walkers on Wainwright's Coast to Coast route.
The drystone cairns stand in a row, 2 – 4 metres tall. They’re very much part of the landscape but do seem to vary over time – some say they can find only 7 of these tall ‘standards’, others claim to find 11! Their height varies with the weather and effo…
The drystone cairns stand in a row, 2 – 4 metres tall. They’re very much part of the landscape but do seem to vary over time – some say they can find only 7 of these tall ‘standards’, others claim to find 11! Their height varies with the weather and effo…
Memories of the Pennine Way
Have you ever walked some or all of the Pennine Way? My earliest memory of the Pennine Way is hysterical laughter as my classmates and I struggled to clamber out of thigh-high mud in a bog near Edale. We'd been taken on a school day trip to supposedly walk the Pennine Way. In those days don’t think there was a risk assessment or even much responsibility on the part of the teacher. It’s a dangerous thing to do without proper forethought. I'm not sure how far anyone thought we'd get, especia…
Events in July and August
What do you have planned for the next couple of months? There are so many events happening all over the Yorkshire Dales, you might need to plan some extra trips? Here's a selection of them.
Settle Flowerpot Festival: 13 July - 1 September
Masham Steam Rally: 20 & 21 July
Ingleton Gala: 20th July
Ripley Show: 11th August
Art in the Pen: 17-18 August
Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival: 10 – 18 August
Gargrave Show: 17th August
Burnsall Sports: 24th August
Malham Show: 24 August
Wensleyda…