Well, it’s Angus again. Mungo has decided that I’m doing so well that I can just keep going for now….so….
When I last wrote, we had all just moved into our new home on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales in a house that was once a Mill. We still can’t believe that we share our home with evil looking mill gears and a cool looking water wheel. Yes, the weather was beginning to get colder, but we still managed to get out and see the countryside whenever the weather was clear and dry (or only mildly damp). Our first real excursion into the Dales was to see Aysgarth Falls. But first we went to the pretty village of Carperby along the Kendal Beck and visited a dog-friendly pub that holds a special place in the annals of the book and TV series All Creatures Great and Small.
The Wheatsheaf Pub was where Alf and Joan Wight (better known as James and Helen Herriot, Wight’s pen name) stayed for their first few nights of their real-life war-time honeymoon. (I will, mostly, just abbreviate the books and TV series from now on as ACGS…you’ll see why as our story unfolds). This was our first stop on what is fondly referred to as the “Herriot Trail” in the Yorkshire Dales! Alf Wight was testing cattle herds for TB, and his brand-new bride was helping with the paperwork. So, a working honeymoon, to be sure. Anyway, back to the pub. Our drivers had a nice lunch while we slept under (or on) their feet. Everyone was friendly and the other dogs that were there didn’t mind that were “from away.”
After lunch we got back in the car and drove a few miles to a “Yorkshire Dales National Park” parking lot, where we left the car and took a lovely walk along the river to see the beautiful Aysgarth Falls. These are “low” waterfalls that run for hundreds of yards down the River Ure in a beautiful valley (aka “dale”) filled with trees as well as the occasional open meadow. This was our introduction to the Yorkshire Dale known as Wensleydale, the home of Wallace and Gromit’s favorite cheese (more about that later) as well as a host of beautiful villages tucked into the countryside. It’s a wonderful place to explore!
A couple of days later we decided that we wanted to try a walk a little closer to home. We had been told about a circular walk from “The Station” to Easby Abbey that was relatively flat and had the bonus of a food truck parked along the river about halfway around. It was a cooler day, but the weather was still dry, so we all set off. It was wonderful! The path was a nice broad track (we found out later that about half of the path runs over top of an old railway bed) and a good bit of it runs along the River Swale. But the best thing about the walk was Easby Abbey, and St Agatha’s church which is nestled beside it.
The Abbey ruins are amazing – and the grass that fills in the land that use to be gardens, pathways, and the inside of the buildings is green and soft and, oh, so wonderful. Mungo couldn’t get enough of it and kept throwing himself down and rolling around on his back. I haven’t seen him so happy in forever! And I liked it too. Plenty of room to roam (it is fully fenced, so safe for us to be off lead when there isn’t anybody else there, and we hardly ever see anyone else when we visit) and hundreds of years of smells to sniff. We decided that day not to do the whole circle route, but instead we retraced our steps back to our car after first stopping for a snack at the riverside café. The guys there were genuinely nice and offered us our own treats and we were able to take a bit of a snooze before waking up and taking in the beautiful river view. There were lots of other dogs with their people out on the path, and everyone was friendly and happy to be out there.
In early November we had a stretch of weather that was amazing – cold but crystal clear and fabulous for taking walks, so we all headed for the River Swale again. We had a nice walk along a different part of the river and there’s a picture of us next to Richmond Falls. Although we were close to the water, we were sitting safely on a walkway that was part of the old weir, part of one of the dams on the river that funneled the water to the mills that used to line its banks. The buildings are gone, but traces of the old industry can still be seen (and sniffed). It was another fun day out with our people.
Then the weather changed! A big windstorm took most of the leaves off the trees, and things got much chillier. But we were still seeing the odd dry and sunny day, so our drivers decided that it was time to explore the Dales again. This time our aim was to take a river walk that started and ended in the village of Grassington, which serves as the backdrop for the current version of All Creatures Great and Small (ACGS) on TV.
My goodness, these folks take their stone walls seriously! Happily, they also take walking paths seriously, so we had a super morning, even if we felt a little “hemmed in” at the start. A narrow path between two solid walls took us all the way down to the River Wharf, where it opened up beautifully. And when we finished our walk and went up the hill to explore Grassington, we found a lovely little village. We stopped for a break at a café (our drivers ate, Mungo and I slept under their feet) and then, well rested, we wandered around the town. We saw the buildings that stand in for Skeldale House (where the Veterinary Practice is set in ACGS) and the Drover’s Arms (the ACGS pub – its dog friendly, too!) and all sorts of other nooks and crannies that we’ve seen on TV. Best of all, even when they aren’t filming for TV, it’s a pretty village, set in a beautiful dale with great places to eat and drink. No wonder James Herriot lives there!
Our next adventure was a fabulous drive – first due west down the heart of Swaledale on roads that got narrower and narrower as we went along, and then we took a hard left onto a road that apparently isn’t safe to drive in the winter because it had all sorts of warning signs on it (like “don’t follow your GPS routing”!!!) that our driver ignored. That tiny, curvy road took us up and through Buttertubs Pass and over Great Shunner Fell (which is a tall hill or a short mountain, your choice). We didn’t get out of the car at the top because the wind was really blowing hard, but we did have a look out the window, and you could see for miles in every direction.
After taking in the view from the top of Buttertubs Pass, we had a wild ride downhill, ending up near the town of Hawes. Our first stop was just outside of town, to visit Hardraw Force, a cool waterfall that has a walk all the way around it. It was beautiful, but it was also really, really loud with all that water crashing down. We looked at the waterfall (from both banks) and we took a walk up the hill and around the top of the ridge to see the water before it falls – it was very neat, and the views from the top of the hill over the field walls and down the valley were pretty.
We grabbed a quick lunch at the Wensleydale Creamery (where Wallace and Gromit’s Wensleydale Cheese is made and they have a cheese museum!) and then we were off to visit Hawes. Hawes is a nice market town, but we were told that it is infested by a group of Yarn Bombers. We didn’t know what that was, so we asked. Apparently, it’s a bunch of people who get together and knit secret projects that they then place around town to raise money for good things like the Dales Air Ambulance. We didn’t actually see them, but we did meet up with Woody, Mr. Potato Head, and Hamm, who were all lounging outside of the Town Hall while they were waiting for their next close-up in Toy Story 5. *And* we were lucky enough to get our picture taken with them! Happy with a good day spent well, we headed home.
Although we still have a couple of weeks left, I’m going to close this note here…but know that there’s much more to come!
Your friend,
Angus
