Over the Easter break we visited Nidderdale AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) in Yorkshire, staying for four nights in a holiday cottage in Pateley Bridge. We spent the week exploring the area, which is full of gorgeous landscapes and interesting places.
Pateley Bridge itself is a picturesque town home to the oldest sweet shop in the world, a cafe dedicated to amazing hot & cold chocolate drinks, and butchers that are famous for their delicious pies.
We had a lovely walk around checking out the various shops, and enjoying delicious sweet and savoury treats. We bought some tins of Cocoa Joe’s drinking chocolate flakes to bring home and use with our velvetiser – we’ll definitely be buying refill pouches from their website when they’re empty.
The area is home to a number of National Trust properties – we visited both Fountains Abbey and Brimham Rocks. The girls reaction to the huge rock formations was really funny – they were resistant to going when I said we should visit some rocks but when they were amazed and surprised by what we found they said “We didn’t think you meant rocks like this!”
Georgie & Lydia had great fun clambering up and over the massive rocks, scampering around while James and I walked the dogs along the footpath. It was pretty chilly so we enjoyed a coffee each to warm up when we got to the kiosk in the centre of the property.
We spent one day checking out Toft Gate Lime Kiln and The Coldstones Cut, which share a free car park and are both free of charge to visit. The kiln was built in the 1860s and you can explore the ruins of the kiln, stone flu and chimney stack.
The Coldstones Cut is a huge piece of public artwork on Greenhow Hill, overlooking a massive working limestone quarry. It’s a short walk uphill from the car park, so James and the girls went up together while I explored the kiln some more. James had some fun with the drone while they were up there, and the girls roamed around the spirals.
Just down the road from The Coldstones Cut is the Toft Gate Barn Cafe where we stopped for lunch. The handmade quiche James and I had was delicious, with fresh salad and yummy coleslaw. The girls had chips which we stole a few of – they were fantastic, and I could have eaten a whole bowl of them myself!
We took a drive along the Nidd Valley to Scar House Reservoir, where we took the dogs & girls for a walk across the dam. It was too cold & wet to do the 4 mile circular walk around the reservoir, especially as the main path was closed for maintenance along the far side and they had a longer diversion in place.
Finished in 1926, the dam contains more than a million tonnes of masonry and is almost 600m long. You can see evidence of the village that was built to house the workers that worked on building the Nidderdale dam, as well as the old Nidd Valley Light Railway that serviced the area – most notably the closed up tunnel entrance that you drive past on your way to the reservoir.
There are information boards that tell you more about the history of the area & the local wildlife near the car park, as well as some public toilets and a picnic area.
Despite visiting all these places, in addition to a day out at Skipton, we could have easily spent another week exploring Nidderdale AONB and the surrounding area – it is a gorgeous place to visit with visually stunning landscapes, lots of good food, and some really interesting places.
We didn’t even make it to the Nidderdale Museum and that is in Pateley Bridge itself – we just weren’t there at the right time of day. We did visit the Grassington Folk Museum though which has a variety of historical memorabilia from the surrounding area – including a Sinclair ZX81 computer and a Nokia 2010 mobile phone from 1994! The girls found the 18th & 19th century dollhouses fascinating.
Unsurprisingly we were all pretty tired but happy by the time the end of the week came around – especially as we went to the NEC for the Insomnia Gaming Festival the day after we got home! It was particularly nice to visit the area as both my parents were born in Yorkshire and Georgie & Lydia enjoyed seeing where I used to visit with them.
