Not a stop I make on every tour in Wensleydale I do, but last week I had a couple who loved gardens so I thought I would treat them to a stop at Aysgarth’s Rock Garden as an extra stop on our Dales Highlights Tour.   It’s easy to miss the Rock Garden on the A684 road between Swinithwaite and Hawes, just past the turning to Aysgarth Falls. There are just some metal railings and a small gate with a few limestone rocks, but don’t be put off it is definitely worth entering and exploring further.   With its weird limestone blocks and alpine plants, you feel like you are stepping ba ..read more

High above Fylingdales Moor at a place called Lilla Howe is one of the most important crosses on the North York Moors if not the whole of England, with a history that dates back to 626.   I had passed the cross years ago on a walk before I became a tour guide and not paid a massive amount of attention to it, but after understanding a bit more about its importance, I set out with my wife to hike to the cross to investigate further.   We parked at the Forestry Commission car park at Old May Beck, before walking through the Foss Plantation and around York Cross Rigg and Widow Howe Mo ..read more

Whilst in Whitby for a few days, we decided on our last night to have a change from pub grub or fish and chips. After googling restaurants in Whitby, I came across an interesting little restaurant called Ditto on Skinner Street, 5 minutes walk from the Whale Bone Arch.   We booked for 6pm and were told that they would need our table back for 8pm. This wasn’t a problem as we just wanted an early tea so we arrived at 6pm on the button to be welcomed as the first there and had the choice of tables. This wasn’t too hard a choice as there appeared to be only about 18 covers.   Having c ..read more

With my tour guiding business, I often have cause to take visitors to the Hepworth Sculpture Gallery in Wakefield.   From the outside car park and from the windows inside, you get a good view of a small gothic building sitting on the bridge across the road over the River Calder. I’d been told this was a chantry chapel many years ago, but thought it would make an interesting blog as it so different from the more modern Hepworth Gallery.   The history behind the building dates back to the mid 1300’s. The Chantry Chapel of St.Mary the Virgin was built by the townspeople of Wakefield w ..read more

Well, there were All Creatures Great and Small fans across the world waiting with baited breath recently as no mention of another series had been made. With season 4 finishing broadcasting on PBS in the United States in February 2024, everyone was expecting as it had been the case after series 2 that an announcement was made pretty early in the New Year about commissioning 2 new seasons – but there was silence. Had the show been axed? Were we ever going to get any more of Nicholas Ralph playing the famous Yorkshire Vet James Heriot? Across fan groups on social media, the rumour mill was turn ..read more

I first came across Goodmanham during lockdown when my wife and I decided to explore the Yorkshire Wolds a bit more. This less well known area of Yorkshire is home to many walking trails, picturesque villages, England’s most northerly chalk hills and a wealth of heritage from the Neolithic to the present day.   There are high hopes that the area will be awarded National Landscape status this year (formerly AONB or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), which would help raise its profile.   We found a route for a loop walk from Market Weighton to Londesborough, and part way round walk ..read more

When it was first opened in the 1700’s, the Leeds & Liverpool Canal helped open up the West of England and the great Port of Liverpool to businesses in Yorkshire. When completed in the early 1800’s the canal stretched 127 miles across the Pennines a notoriously hilly area of land. To cope with the landscape, 91 locks we incorporated into the canal to take barges up and down. There is a particular steep gradient that the engineers had to deal with around Bingley on the outskirts of Bradford. To deal with this they incorporated two staircases of locks – Bingley 3 Rise Locks and the longer ..read more

Whilst York Minster is always seen as the most important church in the North of England, little old Ripon Cathedral can say that it’s Crypt is the oldest surviving structure of any cathedral in England.   I have been to Ripon Cathedral a number of times over the years with guests and whilst the stunning Gothic architecture and scale of the building takes your breath away, it is the tiny crypt beneath the high altar which never fails to astound visitors and still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up every time I visit.   A bit of history about the origins of the Cathedral ..read more

The Malham loop walk in the Yorkshire Dales which takes in the stunning limestone amphitheatre of Malham Cove, the glacial meltwater formed gorge of Gordale Scar and the pretty waterfall Janet’s Foss – was once voted No.3 on ITV’s Britain’s Favourite Walks programme.   The route is nowadays very busy unless you go early in the morning or late evening during summer, but it is still worth a visit.   But rather than blog about the walk, I thought it was worth concentrating on the little waterfall known as Janet’s Foss.   Firstly, where does the name come from and who was Janet? &n ..read more

I often drive through Wharfedale from Bolton Abbey up to Grassington on my All Creatures Great & Small Tours. On the route we pass the ruins of Barden Tower and my guests often say “what’s that castle” as it comes into view.   As we get closer it becomes more obvious that the building isn’t quite a castle, but actually the remains of a fortified manor house just off the B6265, sitting above the banks of the River Wharfe.   What we see now was built in the 1400’s by Henry Clifford – “The Shepherd Lord” (more about him later) to replace an early hunting lodge, but the site also h ..read more