Yorkshire Dales by bus

Kettlewell would certainly do you. Hubberholme only has non public schools buses, you'd have the mile or so walk there from Buckden- the 72A and B (change off the 72 at Grassington) is how you get to Kettlewell and Buckden-

(or the 874 to 876 on a Sunday, the 875 having started from as far away as York).

So for instance you could take the 0938 out of Skipton, 3 hours there then the 1310 up dale service to Kettlewell or Buckden,
Coming back from Buckden at 1620/1645 (School/non School day) or Kettlewell 1630/1655, change Grassington, back into Skipton 1750 or 1852.

see the Dalesbus timetable book- https://www.dalesbus.org/timetable.html (see the map in the centre spread).

(save this down as it will soon change to the winter book, the only real change being the loss of the Sunday 800 series buses). They come back at Easter.

From Skipton you could probably get quite easily to Malham and back - check out the DalesBus time tables (which, as Stuart says, are published towards the end of March ‘26 for next years summer timetables).

From Grassington it’s a short stroll down across the river, over ‘The Tin Bridge’ (original long since replaced, but the name lingers) to the falls and village of Linton. Linton church is worth investigating too.

Starbotton and Buckden are served from Grassington by The Little White Bus service (also a DalesBus service) and for my money are more interesting than Kettlewell, which has sadly become largely a village of holiday let cottages. The Fox and Hounds at Starbotton does excellent food (try the fish finger sandwiches - bit of a misnomer, but they’re fantastic!) and ales by the Lamb Brewery based at Arncliffe.

Going down the valley of the River Wharfe are attractive Burnsall (gets madly busy on a fine day) and Bolton Abbey (likewise) but which have lots of easy walks around and do cater for the madding crowds.

Also, and you may already have worked this out, Skipton has a railway station which links to the Settle to Carlisle line, so plenty of options to get into the Dales there. There’s a specific DalesRail service which largely caters for walkers, as well as the regular time tables. If you need further info and (highly subjective!) opinions, please feel free to ask additional questions - it’s difficult to go into detail when I don’t know your other plans, I may just be giving you info on things you’ve already sorted!

Have a great trip!

Ian

P.S. Grassington has a big National Park information centre and shop and the staff in there are normally really helpful.

Stuart - Thanks for the information and bus details. We may try the Skipton to Grassington to Buckden and back route. I'm a little disappointed about Hubberholme being inaccessible, as I am intrigued to see some of the Mouseman carvings that are in various churches including St. Michael's.

Ian- Thanks for the suggestions. Good to know your view of Kettlewell at this time. In terms of our other plans, we plan to spend one day in Skipton, seeing sights, do a canal boat ride etc, The other day we are planning to take the Embsay-Bolton Abbey train to Bolton Abbey and spend some time there. After our time in Skipton we will be taking the Settle-Carlisle train to Carlisle. Also, looking for a stop along that route. Would we be be able to get to Malham and back to the Settle-Carlisle line fairly efficiently? Also maybe stop at the Aquaduct or at Hawes. This would all depend on the bus schedules, of course. Will the March 26 have schedules for May or will that be out earlier?

Again, thanks to both of you for taking the time to help!!

Probably not what you’re looking for, but Rabbie’s has a day tour of the Yorkshire dales out of Manchester that my wife and I much enjoyed last June. We saw a lot with a great guide.

If it's a weekday when you go to Carlisle then you can either do Ribblehead and Hawes, or Malham- you can't do both. And really Malham doesn't work if you have luggage.

The bus times you see now are what will run then, unless something utterly unexpected happens.

On a Monday to Friday for Malham you would leave Skipton at 0945 arrive Malham at 1025, leave at 1335, back to Skipton at 1415, leave Skipton 1558 Carlisle arrive 1759.

To do Ribblehead and Hawes- leave Skipton on the 0958 train, arrive Ribblehead 1038. Go into the Visitor Centre then down to the Viaduct then the pub if you have time.

Either leave Ribblehead at 1207, Garsdale arrive 1222, or 1435 Garsdale arrive 1450.

At Garsdale take the Little White Bus (LWB) at 1225 or 1455 to Hawes. I know the connections sound tight, but it is a rail connection. The bus will wait unless the train is chronically late. I always wave cheerily at the bus driver as the train stops so he knows I want to connect.

Then the 1755 bus back from Hawes, arrive 1816 for the 1821 to Carlisle, arrive 1928. Again it sounds tight, but it just works. The sadness of the tight connections at Garsdale is you won't have time to see "Ruswarp" the dog on the Leeds bound platform.

To see Ruswarp (and you really should) if you've been on the 1225 bus then take the 1655 LWB back up, and give yourself the hour at Garsdale. As he's on the wrong platform I can't even do what I did last time I took a forum member southbound (in teeming rain) and arrange with the guard to hold the train long enough for them to go and pay a quick visit to him.
The people I took down the line arranged with the pub to hold their luggage while they went to the viaduct on condition they had lunch there. I can't guarantee the pub will do that, but it's worth the advance phone call.

Hubberholme Church is about 30 minutes walk from the bus stop at Buckden- half of which is along the river bank then the rest on the very quiet valley road. You are on the Dales Way long distance footpath. Keep going and you'll eventually end up at Windermere in a few days time!

As Stuart noted, Hubberholme isn’t inaccessible - you just have to walk the short distance from Buckden, which for the majority of people shouldn’t be an issue!

Thanks. I'm crossing Malham off the list for our Skipton to Carlisle day. Glad to know that the connections all work for Garsdale to Hawes and back.

As for as the walk to Hubbleholme, I hope we will have time to walk there and back. I guess it will depend on how early we manage to get started that day.

I have taken notes and bookmarked this thread. I really appreciate your sharing your expertise!

Slate

I have looked at the Rabbie's tours and they look interesting. I hope we can try one sometime. Maybe in Scotland in 2027. This trip we will be doing a couple of Mountain Goat tours but not to the Dales.