Walking Holiday April 2023

Yorkshire Dales

Seven members of our walking groups enjoyed a lovely holiday in late April in the Yorkshire Dales staying with Hf holidays. Travelling in 3 cars, we arrived at our hotel, Newfield Hall, late afternoon in time for our cream tea and settled into our very comfortable rooms before enjoying dinner together. We had had a long journey and made various stop-offs along the way to enjoy the best of what Yorkshire had to offer so had an early night ready for our first walk next day.

There were 4 walks of varying lengths and difficulty on offer and our group split up and between us enjoyed the 3 lower levels of walking, between 7 and 10 miles. On a beautiful day with a cloudless blue sky our starting point was Settle and we enjoyed the wonderful views of Ribblesdale including Stainforth and Catrigg waterfalls and the enormous Hoffman lime kilns before making our way back to Settle where we awaited our coach. After a very satisfying 3 course evening meal we listened to one of our knowledgeable walk leaders explaining the fascinating geology of the area.

Day 2 of walking and it was a chance to explore Wharfedale with charming villages and for some, a scramble up Conistone dib. We ended our walk in Grassington and much to our delight discovered the village set up for filming All Creatures Great and Small! Grassington posing as 'Darrowby'. Our short walk group had already seen some shooting while in the dale having their lunch. It was fascinating to see the film set and just how long it took to prepare to film just a few minutes of action. After a good days walking and another excellent dinner our group formed 'The Leicestershire Lovelies' team to take part in the national Hf quiz. Well, we certainly didn't disgrace ourselves but did not manage to carry away top prize!

Our last day of walking started and finished in the small village of Clapham and up and over the moors to ascend or descend ( depending on which group you were walking with) the limestone gorge of Trow Gill, and view the huge pot hole of Gaping Gill. This was a very breezy day with a bit of a chill in the wind, but we counted ourselves lucky as we had not had any rain during our three days of walks.

Time for another early night after our full on three days of walks, none of us having the energy to participate in the evening indoor curling session. We had throughly enjoyed our break, been very well looked after and fed (too well fed in fact) and set off for our return journey after our breakfast on the last day.

Our group ready to set off on the first days walking

Tea break at Stainforth falls

Hoffman line kiln

Cattrigg falls

Carefully balnced boulder in field of ‘erratics’

Charming old packhorse bridge

'Darrowby' aka Grassington

Gaping Gill