Yorkshire Dales - cheese, the surprise labyrinth! - and onto York.

We set off for a day in the Yorkshire Dales before making our way to York. 

I think I’ve said over 100 times in the car - the grass is just so green!  The stone walls continued, we have never seen so many stone walls in our life.  They went right to the top of the mountains and stretched as far as the eye could see.  The roads were so narrow and cars would still fly past!

We came to a rare section without walls and found sheep and horses grazing freely across the road.  We weren’t sure what breed the horses were but we sat and watched them munching on the grass.

We stopped at a small town, Hawes, and went to the Wensleydale Creamery for a cheese tasting.  There were around 30 different varieties of cheese and I was in heaven! Cheddars, blues, fruit and chilli – I had a little piece of every sort. 

Shortly after leaving, we found ourselves on another little road and in front of us was a lady and her baby in a pram.  The road was so narrow we couldn’t pass her and she started running with the pram until she came to a clearing and could let us pass.  We got chatting to her and she lived close by - her and her husband were sheep farmers.  She was up for a chat and told us all about life as a farmer in the Yorkshire Dales.   They breed sheep and for their top ram last year they got 50,000 pounds and they get around 102 pounds a lamb.  Farms get a subsidy on the proviso they keep their walls up and tidy as it is a requirement because they farm is located in a national park.   There is all different criteria they have to meet.  She said the walls drive them mad as when there is a frost, the ice falls and takes rocks away with it.   Every single day they work from dawn to dusk.  We really enjoyed chatting to her and as we were driving away she said we were welcome to come and stay with her if we were in the area again!

Driving on, we arrived at the Forbidden Corner, originally a unique labyrinth of tunnels, chambers, follies and surprises created within a 4 acre garden.  It was privately created and opened to the public due to high demand.  James and I in particular love a maze and we were given a list of things we had to find along the way.   I couldn’t tell you how amazing it was – there were hedges, turns that lead to pathways, underground chambers, gardens, sculptures, water booby traps – excitement at every turn.  James was skipping along saying, ‘I just love this place, I just love it!’  We spent nearly two hours exploring and there was still one area we couldn’t find.   It was just so clever and I could have stayed there all day.

Onwards we drove and arrived at York early evening.  We picked up the keys to our Airbnb apartment and had a quiet night and home cooked meal.  We’d had a fantastic day exploring the Yorkshire Dales and were all tired out!