Yorkshire Dales base suggestion

You could possibly do Durham from a base in the North York Moor area, but not the Lake District unless you are intending to spend all the day in the car. That really does warrant another base and more time.

For the North York Moors area, Helmelsey or Pickering would work well. Both are attractive small towns with a ruined castle and good facilities. They give easy access to the Moors, Whitby (ruined Abbey and Dracula connections) the ruined abbeys of Rievaulx and Byland as well as Mount Grace Priory. Thirsk can be done easily too. The North York Moors Staem Railway travels from Pickering to Whitby and makes a nice change from the car.

Thank you so much- good suggestions . Trying to cut down on moving base locations too much, would there be a village somewhere in between North York Moors, Yorkshire dales and Lake District from which we could tour by car each of these areas. We are using train travel for for the most of our England trip but once we leave York, we thought we could change to car rental for 3-4 days.
Thanks again

If you look on a map the Dales are roughly between the Lakes and North York Moors, so the Dales would be the place to focus on for a base.

Wensleydale could be an option - villages like Bainbridge, Askrigg, Hawes. https://www.yorkshirenet.co.uk/yorkshire-dales/wensleydale/

Trying to fit all three areas in would mean rushing around so you may have to focus on less; the Moors and Dales would be sufficient for me. The main attraction is to get out of the car and walk. Slow down and experience more.

With three nights, I would not try to do all three areas. I would focus on the Yorkshire Dales and North Yorkshire Moors. Although I liked Durham, I would skip it to have more time in the Dales and Moors, especially since you will have a car. (Durham is easy to get to by train.)

When we were in the area, we stayed in Whitby, Helmsley, and Grassington (three nights in each location; wished we had more.) I adored Whitby with the Dracula connection, Abbey and views of the sea, but it is not centrally located, so probably not the best base for you. Helmsley was a lovely village, but we liked Grassington even better. It is where the outside shots of the village in the new All Creatures Great and Small series on PBS is filmed. (Be sure to watch it before you go. The scenery is just stunning.)

I loved the Lake District as well, but I wouldn’t drive all the way over there for just a day.

Hi Stewart -

Nothing wrong with the suggestions here, but I thought I’d add my twopennorth as well! You might consider staying in the little market town of Masham. Equidistant (just about) between the North Yorks Moors and the Dales there’s plenty to see within a short distance - the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey, and Middleham castle the (also ruined) childhood home of Richard lll (well loved by many in Yorkshire despite his reputation - history always written by the winners, of course) which is slap bang in the middle of the attractive village of Middleham, which is also a Yorkshire base for horse racing trainers so staying there can be a bit trying unless you find the clip clop of horses en route to the early morning gallops soothing. A little further from there is Leyburn a rather bigger town with giant central market square, also worth a look at, but you are erring more toward the Dales there.

We recently stayed in Masham at The Kings Head, right on the market square (small honesty box car park fee to park in the square as the pub doesn’t have parking, but not worth arguing about). The rooms we stayed in were annexes to the pub at the rear, nicely converted various farm buildings, very pleasant and our room was pretty large as they go here, despite its deceptive exterior. Reasonable prices - we booked through Booking.com if memory serves. Of course if you wanted to push the boat out, just outside Masham is the extensive Swinton Park Estate, a faux castellated country house now with Spa facilities, beautifully appointed rooms and excellent restaurant. Prices to match however, but if you balk at staying there, they do a lovely afternoon tea (booking necessary) in the Drawing Room. Or you could just go for an admittedly not cheap dinner in the restaurant. I made the slight error of ordering the venison but was slightly put off when the estate herd came down to peer at me eating it through the restaurant windows!

There are also two breweries in Masham, possibly it’s main claim to fame, Theakston’s and The Black Sheep Brewery both owned and run by the Theakston family. No prizes for guessing the reason for the naming of the latter! Both do excellent hand pumped beers (warm/room temperature draught British beers) but in my booklet you can’t go wrong with either a pint of ‘Sheep’ or Theakston’s ‘Best’ (both ‘bitters’).

You have a bit of a problem in striking the Lakes from between the North Yorks Moors and the Dales - it might not look far but you’d be surprised at the time it would take you to get there. If you wanted to split your time to get closer to the Lakes, then consider the towns of Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale, or the tiny village of Dent, all a bit further west, reducing the trek into the Lakes. Let me know if you need more on them!

Hope you get something sorted to your satisfaction.

Ian

Fantastic information from all above- and all agree Dales, Moors and Lake District would be difficult to coincide. I think we will stick to original plan of omitting Lake (we live very near a beautiful lake district in Ontario, Canada (Muskoka) and would rather see something far different. And yes, we LOVE James Herriot books and TV programs (past and current)!
Thank you,
Chris

I just returned from a 2 week trip that included Hadrian's wall, Yorkshire Dales and Durham. The question is what you want to see and do. Both Hadrian's wall and Durham is seeing history sites - castle, cathedral, wall, Roman Army Museum, etc. Yorkshire dales is more scenery, walks, etc. The main thing to remember is 30 miles on non-A or M roads can easily take an hour. Roads in a lot of this area of small (1 track but 2 way traffic) twisty and hilly. It is a great place to visit but don't expect to cover a lot of ground.

For the Dales and to provide a variety of walks and sites, try something on the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. I stayed in Hawes and liked it (great Chippy and the Wnsleydale Creamer), but takes a while a get anywhere. 3 days doesn't give you a lot of time to spend driving.

From York either head north to the Moors National Park and find a base or head west and find a base on the south side of the Dales National Park. York to Harrogate (which looks short and on major road) can easily take an hour with traffic. Hawes to Malham (worth seeing) takes over an hour and it is 27 miles. Google maps assumes a car drives the speed limit which is difficult to do on the roads unless you are used to driving on the left and driving this type of road. I generally stayed between 30 and 40 miles an hour despite the speed limit posted. I occasionally forgot the car had a 4th gear.