Base for Dales/North Yorkshire

Hi acechrist -

If Grassington doesn’t float your boat, try further up the dale in Kettlewell. Slightly further up, but not really what you specify as they are tiny, are Starbotton and Buckden and I’ve booked a stay at Litton which is up a side dale off the Grassington to Kettlewell road later in the year.

Or you might venture further north west to either Clapham or Ingleton. All have good Dales walks from the door. Alternatively, if you want somewhere that’s betwixt the Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors, try Masham. You’d need travel to hike or visit the east coast (all the towns on the coast you mention are good, Whitby being the biggest and which could fill a full day easily by itself) but it’s sort of in the middle between the two areas..

Pateley Bridge is pleasant enough and there’s some interesting stuff up Nidderdale as regards walking, or you might have a look at Ripon which is a small city, and, like Masham, is kind of positioned between the Dales and the N.Y. Moors. It’s also handy for Fountains Abbey, which is a must-see for my money if you are in the area.

Hope this gives you some food for further thought/research.

Feel free to either ask here or PM me if you need any further/specific info.

Ian

Hi, acechrist, I agree with everything Ian said. I spent a week in North Yorkshire earlier this year and based myself near Helmsley, but I probably spent more time on the North Yorkshire Moor than the Dales. Since you are mostly planning to visit places in the Dales, you might want something more central. If you are interested, I wrote a personal blog with lots of photos when I was there this year. I spent 6 weeks in England overall, but one week was in Yorkshire. The first post (where I visit Grassington) is linked below, and you can find the remaining 6 days in Yorkshire from there. https://mostlytraveled.wordpress.com/2024/04/13/goodbye-to-the-peak-district-hello-yorkshire/

I agree that Ripon might be a good choice as there would be lots of bakeries, pubs, groceries (including the wonderful grocery, Booths, which I highly recommend). And as Ian said, you are very near Fountains Abbey, which I agree is a must-see destination, imo (Riveau Abbey, near Helmsley, is another one).

Masham would also be a good choice. I stopped there for a bit and had lunch at Black Sheep Brewery, which had a nice selection of food and an even better selection of beer available. I really liked this place.

I just remembered that there was a thread or two this past year about accommodations in Grassington, so you might want to check out these 2 threads for ideas and links:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/yorkshire-75b8c42a-b073-4c8e-8e8e-53e0b7a4a709

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/yorkshire-towns-to-stay-in-and-resources-for-finding-apartment-house-accomodations

As an aside I've stayed at Litton- a lovely very quiet dale, off the usual tourist routes. Arncliffe is the only real village in the dale and that isn't saying a great deal.
It is quite a change from being at the busy widescreen film festival in Bradford.
When I was there the Queen's Arms (at Litton) locked it's doors even to residents from after breakfast to evening opening time- pretty unusual (and no front door keys for residents).
Charles Kingsley was inspired to write 'The Water Babies' while on a visit to Arncliffe (useless factoid of the day) and a rather controversial Bishop is buried in the Churchyard.
I was there investigating the history of my Church in Cumbria (for the Victoria County History Project and our own website) as one of our most well known and interesting ex Vicars was a Revd Armistead who originated from the valley. Indeed descendants are still in the area. You will still see the name of Armistead or Armitstead very widely in the area and Ermysted's School (a big one) in Skipton is another version of the name.
Pateley Bridge is on the limits of the desired 90 minute drive to Whitby and the East Coast. Grassington is more like 2 hours, up dale further again.
But apart from that the dale will do well for your purposes. Grassington is the largest village in the Dale.

My husband and I used Grassington as our base last September and loved it- it's a delightful town. But we only used this base to explore Wharfdale (up to Castle Bolton and Hawes), Skipton and Malham. We spent another three nights in Whitby, meandering our way there from Grassington to see Rievaulx Abbey, Helmsely and Hutton-le-Hole. We spent one of our Whitby days on the North York Moors Railway. If you want to spend time in Whitby, Robinhood's Bay, or Staithes, it's not terribly convenient to do so from the Dales, in my opinion. We ended our Yorkshire adventure in York (2 nights). It's certainly easy to do a day trip to York from many towns in the Dales, but I love being there in the evenings and mornings when there are less crowds. Plus, one day in York just wasn't enough for us. But it definitely depends on your interests. So, you might consider dividing your 9 days between the Yorkshire Dales and the NY Moors just to minimize your driving.

Have fun!

I've been giving this a bit of thought.

What about Richmond, North Yorkshire (not London).

It has the shops (especially at the old station) and the pubs, and is within 90 minutes to Whitby, York and Durham. Also a really good castle and a Georgian theatre.
Quaint is not too unreasonable a word for the town.

But it is at the end of Swaledale. That is a great Dale for hiking, but is little known on this forum.
Part of Wainwrights C2C.

The first and last weekends in May may be a bit busy due to public holidays but it isn't a dale which gets packed out.
Do go right up to the head of the dale at Keld, then over to the Tan Hill Inn.
A!so over the Buttertubs Pass to Hawes in Wensleydale.

I'm not sure if to say come back to us with a trip report, or to say keep this a secret.

Thanks for all the ideas, always such a great community here! Right now we booked and settled at a place in Richmond, which as already mentioned, ticks a lot of the boxes.

I have just scratched the surface on what N. Yorkshire has to offer and it seems like there is a ridiculous amount of things to do and places to explore.

I was in Richmond last year and loved it. I think you’ve made a good choice.