12 BEST PLACES in the YORKSHIRE DALES | Villages, Walks & Hidden Gems

Hey guys today we've come back to Skipton to walk along the canal but also really to talk a little bit about our 12 best places to visit in the Yorkshire Dales. So these are going to be in no particular order, if you want to rank them in the comments please do. We struggled to pick one as a best place to be honest because they all offer something completely different. Let's get started anyway. So the first place that we want to mention is a village called Malham. Now Malham is a very iconic village simply because of Malham Cove. A lot of people go there to visit Malham Cove. It's a huge huge stone face. It used to be a waterfall many millennia ago I think. It actually came back to life about 10 years ago I think. There was some water coming off it again. It's also home to some great waterfalls like one's called Janet's Foss and Gordale Scar. If you've ever been to the Yorkshire Dales you'll know these are very iconic places that people do visit. You can actually take in these waterfalls all in one circular walk in the area. A very popular walk to do. The village itself is brilliant. There's some lovely pubs and also there's a visitor centre but there's not a lot of sort of shops there you know like small boutique shops or anything like that. That's what Malham likes but what it likes it makes up for in epic scenery. So the first place on our list to visit is Malham and Malham Cove. The second place we want to mention is a village called Grassington. Now Grassington is very different to Malham in that it has lots of different shops, lots of boutiques, cafes, things like that. It's got a cobbled market square that it's famous for and it was the filming location for All Creatures Great and Small. It's also situated on the River Worth and it's close to another place that we're going to mention in a second as our third place. It has a beautiful old bridge there and we'll put on screen what century that dates to and also where Grassington dates to. But yeah that is a lovely village, super scenery, very very touristy as well. The Yorkshire Dales National Car Park there, bus station too, so easy access to get there but a very very popular place. And it's also just along the river from our third place that we want to mention and that's somewhere called Linton Falls. So you can get there very easily from Grassington and there we have an old wooden bridge situated over a very powerful waterfall really. It gets quite powerful when it's been raining and you'll see the location there, the scenery is absolutely stunning. Just a short walk away from Grassington, Linton Falls, you don't want to miss that if you come into the Yorkshire Dales. That's place number three. The fourth place on our list is called Pateleet Bridge. It's a lovely little village and it's home to the oldest sweet shop in the world. Popular with those with touring vans and campers and things like that. It gets very very busy but it does have a very authentic feel to it. Yeah again some nice pubs, a big green area and park for the kids to play in with a bandstand. Also you can walk along the River Nidd from there, there's lots of walks in the area and each year I think they have a farm show or something like that each year as well. You might want to coincide your visit with that. But yeah Pateleet Bridge is probably one of our favourite places but I did say I wouldn't name a favourite because to be honest we love them all. That's number four though, Pateleet Bridge. So the next place we want to mention is a village called Burnsall. Now we went there recently on the channel and it's a place that I've driven through a lot of times but I've never actually stopped off at. But there's a lovely ice cream shop there, again gets very very busy in summer and on bank holidays. But if you were to go other times of year it would be very very quiet. But it's a beautiful village, a very old bridge again and it's also part of the Dales Way. Now a lot of the places we've mentioned in this video they are part of the Dales Way. But yeah when we visited on that video we had a quick look at the visitor centre, the food they sold there and things. But we had a little walk along the River Wharf and it was truly epic honestly. I don't like using that word too often because it gets overused doesn't it. But the scenery for the River Wharf at Burnsall and a little walk along the Dales Way towards Hebden and Grassington, it was stunning. So do check out Burnsall if you're going to come. If it's not a busy time of year it'll be quite quiet but if it is, if it's one of the more popular times like a bank holiday, in summer especially, you can expect it to be very very busy. And if you want to have just a relaxing picnic by the River Wharf with a beautiful beautiful river scene around you then Burnsall could be the place for you to go. So place number six on our list then is a village called Ingleton. A village I know very well because I used to work there. But when you drive through and you go through on the main road, I think it's the A65 that goes through there, that runs through Ingleton and it didn't look it didn't look that nice from the road but when you actually get into the village it's absolutely a beautiful place, beautiful area. Again lots of little shops there a little bit like Grassington, there's lots to explore shop-wise. There's bed and breakfast there, there's a nice big park for kids to play in and there's also an outdoor swimming pool like a Lido and you can get down to the side of the river as well, relax by the river with a picnic. It really is a lovely place. There's a skate park there, it's not a small village, it's not huge but it's not one of the smaller villages in the Yorkshire Dales so there is things to do for the kids like a skate park. And of course one of the three peaks, Ingleborough, is situated from Ingleton. You can get there, you can walk up to Ingleborough and so lots to see and do at Ingleton and also there's caves like the kids can go cave in, I think it's called White Scar Caves. So there's plenty to do for kids, a great base perhaps to stay somewhere to stay to explore the Yorkshire Dales front and it's got a lovely community feel in that village. There's also some lovely farm shops located around that area too. And of course we should not forget the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, that's a very popular walk in the Yorkshire Dales. You actually have to pay to use it these days, it got that popular and that they needed to start charging people to actually do that walk to make sure the paths were kept correctly and it was all clean and tidy. But yeah, certainly something not to be missed if you're in the area. The Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, definitely something we want to do in future on the channel and feature. So if you want to see that, do subscribe and we do have videos of pretty much every place that we've mentioned in this video but we're always looking for new places to explore. So if you feel we've missed somewhere and we should have included it in this video, do mention it in the comments and we'll try and visit there and include that on the channel for you our subscribers. And thank you so much for the support you've given to this channel so far. On that note, please do give this video a two if it's helping you out, if it's helping you plan your trip to the Yorkshire Dales National Park. So the seventh place on our list of places to visit in the Yorkshire Dales is the market town of Settle. Now this has very historical roots, it dates back to medieval times, a very historical place. Again, lots of shops here to explore, takeaways, it could be a great base to explore the Yorkshire Dales from. But the scenery is stunning, there are bakeries here, fish and shops and I think the Yorkshire Dales Museum is actually located here as well in a building called The Folly which has a cafe there too. Yeah, Settle is known as the gateway to the Three Peaks because it's a popular place to stay to do that very popular walk in the area which encompasses the hills of Ingleborough, Wernside and Penygent, doesn't it? People do all three of those hills in a day with some epic scenery along the way. Also from Settle, you could do the Settle to Railway which goes over the top of the Ribblehead Viaduct which is actually our next place that you really need to visit if you're coming to the Yorkshire Dales, the Ribblehead Viaduct. So the Ribblehead Viaduct is a series of 24 stone arches, I think it was the last of these big viaducts to be built by hand by actual navvies, proper hand labour, no machines involved I don't think but yeah I'll double check that. It's the backdrop to the Three Peaks Challenge that we just talked about but yeah over 100 workers died building the Ribblehead Viaduct I think which is sad but obviously things got a little bit safer after that. So then we're on to our ninth place would you believe and that is Bolton Abbey. Now Bolton Abbey is situated about probably about 10-15 minutes just outside of Skipton. It's the ruin of a 12th century abbey when King Henry VIII had the disillusion of the monasteries and they got rid of, they destroyed a lot of these buildings didn't they, these abbeys and it's a famous ruin in the area. But it's such a vast place, the whole estate is so vast, it's got four separate car parks, so much to explore there. Again along the River Wharfe, a popular place for kids to come have an ice cream, play in the river but there's so much more to do here. You can walk through the woods to a famous river called the Strid which is actually considered one of the most dangerous rivers in the world. It doesn't look it but it's very very narrow really but it's very unassuming the the currents underneath it apparently it's got a hundred percent fatality rate which is scary isn't it. But yeah that's located in Strid Wood. There's also another car park located where you can have barbecues I think a place called Bardham Bridge which I personally feel has one of the most the nicest views from a bridge that I've ever ever seen really. It's so nice and relaxing. There's little v-shaped parts like there is at Burnsall in the bridge where you can stand and admire that view while having an ice cream and Bolton Abbey. You have to pay for parking. We have a video about Bolton Abbey on the channel if you want more information on that do check that out. So the 10th place on our list then is a little village called Gargrave. Now why have we included Gargrave? It's not a huge place but there are some nice there are a couple of nice little shops there and tea rooms and but it's situated on the River Wharfe. It runs right through the village, it's got stepping stones going through the river which makes it a really really nice place to visit to relax by the river again possibly have a picnic something like that. A great place to stroll around and it's also on the Leeds to Liverpool canal which adds another element to the village. You can walk there from Skipton along the canal I think all the way to Gargrave. That canal aspect adds a different element to this village that we feel makes it a really nice place to visit and should be on the list of places to visit in the Yorkshire Dales. There's also a viaduct and I think and an aqueduct there and we did a little walk around the area on that video where it showed the crossing over the River Wharfe and do check that video out especially if you want just a little bit of a slower paced day out. It's on the Pennine Way has lots to offer and our Gargrave video actually until we filmed Kettlewell recently was one of the most popular videos on our channel so a lot of people must agree with us that it's worth a visit. So our 11th place to visit in the Yorkshire Dales is Kettlewell and so we went there recently it's a lovely pretty little village and the car park is situated right on the River Wharfe and popular with walkers. It's just one of those places where it's small quaint but it has something different to it. It was probably we labeled the video one of the prettiest villages in the Yorkshire Dales because that's the feeling we got when we were there and there were places to eat, there was an old phone box there, really nice place to visit and also someone had just set up a heritage meat wagon there from their own farm so it's got a very Yorkshire Dales feel about it and Kettlewell certainly worth a visit. There's a famous scarecrow festival in Kettlewell once a year and also I think certain things have been filmed there as well and people were mentioning that in the comments on the video so the heritage feel to it that has obviously been felt that much that they've used it for filming as well. Kettlewell is definitely another scenic and base village for walking as well with all those pubs and inns there and I'm sure there'll be bed and breakfast there too and airbnbs. And our final place that we want to include in the video, our 11th place or is it our 12th? I've kind of lost count, is Ayresgarth Falls. Now this is a beautiful set of waterfalls right heading towards North Yorkshire I think it is. These waterfalls, they're actually three separate waterfalls, you have a lower, a middle and an upper set of these waterfalls. We visited them in our video, five beautiful waterfalls in the Yorkshire Dales to visit which also included Scale the Force by the way which we forgot to mention when we went to when we talked about Settle. But yeah Ayresgarth Falls, it's a great place to go and explore all three of those waterfalls, have a picnic by the river and yeah beautiful place, Ayresgarth Falls. Before we end the video though technically we've reached the end of our places now but I did want to mention just one more place and although it isn't in the Yorkshire Dales technically it also holds the name of the gateway to the Dales and that's a place called Ilkley. Now it doesn't really have a village feel there, it's more of a town I think. Yeah and Ilkley, it feels more like a smaller Harrogate but like I say it's technically not in the Yorkshire Dales National Park but part of it is, there's some rocks up on Ilkley Moor called the Cow and Calf Rocks, they are I think part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park but Ilkley town itself isn't. However it is the start of the Dales Way which runs from Ilkley all the way up to Bowness in Windermere. So I'm not sure why it's not quite part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, definitely deserves a mention in the video as somewhere you might want to visit as it would be a great place to spend a week perhaps to explore the Dales from there as well, Ilkley. So if you are planning a trip to the Yorkshire Dales and specifically the Yorkshire Dales National Park then I do hope this video has helped you out giving you ideas of places to visit in the Yorkshire Dales. If it has please do give it a like and subscribe to the channel, don't forget to check out our content because we have lots of videos on the channel showcasing a lot of these places. But yeah, thank you for watching Exploring the North and until next time, bye for now.