Tuesday 22 June 2021

A Week in The Yorkshire Dales #2 :: A Weekend of Waterfalls

Hi there everyone 😀

We spent the first weekend of our break in The Yorkshire Dales having our annual catch up with old work friends. For obvious reasons we had to miss our catch up last year but we’d all managed to rearrange our holiday accommodation and our dates coincided nicely with a further easing in lockdown restrictions, allowing us to actually sit together in The Castle pub in Hawes for our first meal together on Friday night.

The forecast for the weekend was mixed, but we were going to make the most of it and on Saturday morning we all met up on The Aysgarth Falls car park ...
We started off with a walk to the Middle Falls ... which were looking pretty fierce following all the rain we'd had recently ...

After a bit of faffing around we managed our normal group selfie ...

... before carrying on to the Lower Falls ... and, on the way, this was just too good a photo opportunity to be missed ...
The Lower Falls were awesome ... we could get right down on the rocks close to the river and could really feel the force of the water ...
The views down river were pretty impressive too ...

We stayed a while, taking plenty of photos ...
... before taking the path back to the car park ...
We had a quick stop at the visitor centre for a coffee, where we were treated to a light shower of rain, which had been threatening and forecast. Fortunately it didn't last long and after a bit of a breather we walked back the other way to the bridge to have a look at the upper falls ...
The footpath took us down through the woodland along the side of the road ...
... and back to the bridge, where we had some great views of Upper Falls ...


Before heading back to the car park we wandered a bit further up river and we were so glad we did as, again, we could get right down by the water and the views were fabulous ...


I couldn't resist taking this photo ... it was just so lovely and the colours really popped ...

As we hadn’t been able to get a table booked for our evening meal we headed back to Askrigg for a late lunch in the pub … funnily enough The Castle again, before parting for the evening.

We were all prepared for lots of rain on Sunday but decided we would just head out anyway … this time meeting at The Green Dragon for a visit to Hardraw Force, England's highest single drop waterfall, set within 15 acres of wooded grounds in Upper Wensleydale.

There are two walk options ... we opted for the lower walk, which took us alongside Hardraw Beck, which was just lovely ...
There are three oak footbridges across the beck and it was very easy to imagine families picnicking and paddling in the beck on a sunny day ... it was a really pretty spot.
It's not very far, but it was a lovely walk ... ending up at the bottom of the waterfall ...
We crossed the beck via one of the oak bridges ...

... and a kindly chap took a photo of us all ...
... before we headed back along the far side of the beck. There was plenty of interesting bits and pieces to see on the way back ... wildflowers and ferns ...
... a wishing log ...

... and the old tea bothy, where, back in Victorian times, the gentry were treated to refreshments by their host, following their walk to the waterfall ...
We finally crossed back over the beck and headed back ...

Our next stop was a short drive away ... Cotter Force ... where we parked in the roadside layby just past the footpath ...
It was another lovely short walk, alongside the beck to the waterfall, which was another real gem ...

Again, we stayed a while, enjoyed the view and took plenty of photos.

It was another lovely little walk, with another fabulous sight to see.

That was it for our waterfalls for Sunday. We headed into Hawes for a mooch round the Wensleydale Creamery, had lunch and a wander round Hawes, before we all headed back to where we were staying for a bit of a chill out before meeting up for our last evening meal together.

We ate in The White Hart ... we had a lovely meal to round off our annual catch up, which we all really missed last year. Next year it's Ross-on-Wye 😀

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5 comments:

  1. You definitely did your share of waterfalls, and all ones I would love to see. Didn't you once have to walk through The Green Dragon and pay to see Hardraw Force? I think I read that once somewhere. Beautiful photos and you looked like you all had a fun time. :)

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    1. Haha … thanks Shazza … lots more waterfalls to come, we ended up on a bit of a mission to see at least one every day. And yes, you get to Hardraw Force via The Green Dragon … it’s just £1 to enter and well worth it 😃

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  2. Thanks for the bevy of photos of Aysgarth Falls, somewhere I've been, though not nearly as much water flowing over as you've snapped. Take care & hugs.

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    1. You are so welcome … we ended up seeing at least one waterfall every day we were away … in fact we got just a little bit obsessed, so lots more to come. 😃

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