Yorkshire highlights

Having good friends in Yorkshire who are both proud of the area in which they live and generous with their time gifted us with fantastic local insights including some hidden natural wonders.

Some of the natural highlights included:

Plumpton Rocks

Plumpton Rocks is a cluster of gritstone (much like Sydney Sandstone) boulders that in the 1750’s were transformed into a celebrated landscape garden with a man made lake. Now the garden has largely been allowed to return to its natural state and is a mixture of forest, natural rock formations and moss covered crumbling architecture.

We visited on a day when it was technically closed so we had the rocks all to ourselves and took our time to wander around the lake and enjoy the scenery.

Brimham Rocks

Brimham Rocks is on one of the highest hills of the Yorkshire moors and provides views almost to the east coast, the lakes district and beyond Sheffield. Many millions of years of erosion and weathering has created rock formations of stacked boulders.

Malham Cove

Malham Cove is a curved 70m high limestone escarpment near the village of Malham, North Yorkshire. It was formed by a waterfall carrying meltwater from glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age more than 12,000 years ago. The top of the Cove limestone has formed a natural pavement criss-crossed with little crevices filled with plant life. The escarpment is a popular venue for rock climbers. The overhang of the cliff face provides some real challengers even for experienced climbers.

Access to the Cove is through farm land on a pedestrian right of way but beware of the cows. As we neared the gate our progress was blocked by cows who nudged us off the path. We took evasive action scrambling over the dry stone wall to the safety of the road.

Gordale Scar

Gordale Scar is a deep gorge and waterfall approximately 1.5km from Malham Cove. Torrents of glacial meltwater that flowed over it cut down through faults in the rock. Successive ice ages have carved it deeper and deeper over thousands of years. Water still flows down the Scar and locals rock hop and scramble up the waterfall to the top. We had planned to do this but heavy rains overnight meant the flow of water was too great and many of the rocks were covered by a torrent of water. Our planned walk was altered and we headed for the nearby Malham Inn for a pint just as the rain started.

Comments

How to take a Van-life gap year

How to take a Van-life gap year You don’t just wake up one day, book tickets, fly to Europe and pick up the first campervan you see. There is a lot of planning and organizing to make it happen. For us, it was a concept that we worked towards over two years and got serious about in the last 6-8 months. Van purchase In researching vans, we learned that we could buy one, but couldn't insure or register it without being either European residents (read: address, bank account and utility bills in the country we wished to buy the van in) or set up a company to own, insure and register the van. Now this is not straight-forward as one needs to be able to navigate the system from the other side of the world and in another language (as vans in the UK / Ireland were considerably more expensive than on the continent). There are a number of companies who provide services in this space. We chose EuroCampingCars, because they are based in France and deal in late model v

Highland Games

Arriving in Scotland we saw Highland Games advertised in almost every town that we visited. The problem for us was the events were either the week before or in 4 days time; never at a time convenient for us. Our luck changed on the Scottish Borders town of Peebles; all the stars aligned. Highland Games are when local communities get together and celebrate Scottish culture. All Highland games include: a pipe band competition, highland dancing, and traditional heavy events including caber tossing, hammer throwing, and the crowd favourite of haggis hurling. Pipe bands and dancing are open to all ages and cover a range of abilities Shot putt is the same as the Olympic event but competitors are free to use whatever technique works for them. Some use a standing throw, others use a run up or spinning preparation. Hammer throwing, unlike its Olympic equivalent the hammer has a wooden handle and the athlete does not spin in a circle before throwing it. The athlete us

Traditional Cider Production

How do you find out how cider is authentically made? One method is you go to Somerset visit a cider pub ie one that has a license to only sell cider. No beer or spirits here, thank you very much. Then you settle in for a few pints. Once the patrons have become accustomed to you and you can understand their west-country accents you ask them where and how to make this happen. We were at the Tuckers Grave Cider House when a cidery name was thrown out to us by a local. “Go and see Roger Wilkins he makes good cider and he makes it the old way” we were told with a toothless grin “but he lives in a back lane and you will ne’er find him”. Nothing like a challenge for Tanya (navigator). Other patrons said that the Wilkins Farmhouse Cidery was the most authentic in all of Somerset. The next day we phoned Roger and were given directions. Driving down tiny laneways with mirrors on both sides of the van hitting the overgrown hedgeways we found the farm. On the high side of the l

Mid-life gap year Tanya and Craig

Search This Blog