The Yorkshire Dales - Hawes

The next stop on our Great British Road trip was the Yorkshire Dales. This was inspired by a recent read of James Herriot’s hilarious memoir, “All Creatures Great and Small,” which is about him as a young veterinary doctor, beginning his career in the Dales in 1937. I highly recommend it, as well as the more recent PBS TV series.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park is huge, and there are many places to see, so we made a base in the village of Hawes. I expected to see sheep, cows, some streams, a lot of farmland, and I also heard there was some good hiking. But I didn’t expect to LOVE the Yorkshire Dales as much as I did. 

Photos can’t really express what this place is like. There is no obvious visual drama like the Alps, or the Himalayas, or the exotic landscapes in China and Malaysia. The Dales are a gentle beauty with rustic farm cottages and vistas of rolling green hills broken up by the ubiquitous stone walls that separate one pasture from another.

The sky was endless, and most of the days we visited displayed a clear blue. But then the morning would usher in a mist that rolled, caressing the hills, the dales and the church steeple in the distance.

On our first full day in Hawes, we planned to walk to Hardraw Force. It was a really sunny day, and there was little tree cover on our hike, so Tom popped into a local outfitter to buy an umbrella. The store had an enormous selection of rubber boots and raincoats, so we figured they must ordinarily get a fair amount of rain. 

But on this bright robin egg blue-sky day, we got a few looks from the locals and comments from our fellow ramblers about looking for rain. However, a travel tip we learned in Asia is that one of the most reliable sources of shade was an umbrella. It can also make a handy walking stick.

Our hike to Hardraw Force (also known as a waterfall) involved cutting across several farms, and then we had to go through the Green Dragon Pub. Delightful! We also found that on the map for many of our hikes the makers included a symbol for pubs or literary references in the key! Yes!

Mom and Dad walked with us for a bit, but eventually decided that the nearly 5-mile circular trail might be a much for them. 

Everything was charming!! The signs, the bridges, the sheep, the wide open fields, squeezing through gates as we passed from one field to the next, the walking sticks for sale... all of it!

The Green Dragon pub that we "had" to pass through to get to the waterfall was unbelievably charming!!!!

Tom even found his dream car, the classic Landy!!

And since we weren’t ready to go back yet, we hung out a bit to watch a sheepdog demo scheduled for that night. 

Hawes is also home of the Wensleydale Creamery, noted as the keepers of a 1000-year-old cheese making process and curators of the wonderful “cheese experience.” Yes, please!!! Wallace and Gromit are involved too, for some reason.

Later in the week, we visited the village church, St. Margaret’s, for services. It was lovely. The kids were especially excited about the array of scones and biscuits offered to them after the service.

Tom enjoyed chatting with the vicar while I studied the stained glass windows. After days of fields and sheep and farms, these particular images really resonated in a new way. 

Then we joined the rest of Hawes at their local favorite spot for our first Sunday Roast, complete with Yorkshire Pudding!

In the village of Hawes there was one grocery store (the size of a 7-Eleven, but really well-stocked), another speciality food shop, and a local butcher/bakery. All of these closed by 6 pm. Most other businesses were closed by 4 pm. After that time, the only things we found open were a few pubs and the local “chippie shop.” 

But instead of that being limiting, there was a lovely rhythm to it. People were out and about, but the chief responsibilities of the day were over, and you felt that in the relaxed way people interacted with us. 

At the Chippie (fish and chips) shop, a man from the church service warmly inquired about our day. The pharmacist stopped us on the sidewalk to ask how Mom’s knee “was getting on” after he had sold us a compression sleeve. One evening we ran into Harold (the man who sold Tom an umbrella) out for a walk with his young family. Our landlord swung by to drop us some extra “fobs.” The neighbor kids often knocked on the door to see if our kids wanted to come play with them … Is this what being in a village is like?

It’s hard to put all of that in a photo. 

Another thing that photos are also inadequate to show is that the smell of the Dales in July was sweet, strong and alive. The wind would bring its fragrance to your nose at unexpected times, making you smile and then sigh. 

And then at night, when all was still, I could stand by my open dormer window and watch the stars peep out one by one. The silence, a sound in and of itself, was broken only by the wind rolling across the grasses, and an occasional solitary baa ... that echoed. 

Charming place, charming people, charming sheep, charming village. 

It only took about four days before I began perusing local real estate ads…

James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small

“I hadn’t dreamed there was a place like the Dales. I hadn’t thought it possible that I could spend all my days in a high, clean-blown land where the scent of grass or trees was never far away; and where even in the driving rain of winter I could snuff the air and find the freshness of growing things hidden somewhere in the cold clasp of the wind.”