Yorkshire itinerary

I've always wanted to stay in or near Whitby! You may still have some pleasant Beach Weather in September. There are some known Glass Beaches north of there.

With 12 days are you wanting to spend all that time in either Yorkshire Dales OR the North York Moors - or are you wanting to split between the two?

Pickering/Helmsely area makes a good base if you are wanting to visit the North York Moors as everywhere is easily reachable from there - and there's lots of good walking to do too! You have a ruined castles in Pickering and Helmsley and there are the ruined abbeys of Rievaulx, Byland, Whitby as well as Mount Grace Priory. There is the tiny church of Kirkdale Minster with its 1000 year old sundail as well as the equally old old St Hilda's Church in Ellerburn (a lovely walk from Thornton le Dale) . Don't miss a trip on the North York Moors railway either!

For the Dales, chooses a base for the Southern Dales (Settle, Grassington, Malham Area) and then one for the Northern area (Hawes, Reeth or Richmond).

The Southern Dales are probably more about scenery and walking, although you have a castle at Skipton and a rather splendid church too with the family tombs from the castle. You have access to the Three Peaks of Whernside, Pen y Ghent and Ingleborough.

Froim a northern base, there are ruined castles at Richmond, Middleham as well as Bolton Castle. There are the waterfalls at Asygarth as well as the impressive Hardraw Force near Hawes.

Hi -

Wasleys beat me to it! I was going to suggest just about everything in their post!

However, on the coast you could check out Robin Hoods Bay, Runswick Bay and Staithes. Avoid the honeypots - tacky ones at that - of the likes of Bridlington and Scarborough.

Helmsley is an excellent base for investigating the east coast and the North Yorkshire Moors. You might visit Ripon, Fountains Abbey and Masham, all of which are near York and are between the Dales and the N. Y. Moors. Wasleys have covered places to stay in the Dales excellently, but as my home dale is Wharfedale it would be remiss of me not to mention the tiny settlements north of Grassington up Upper Wharfedale. Tranquil, excellent walking but not much in the way of castles it has to.be said.

Feel free to ask for more specific details as you try to pin down, or once you’ve established your itinerary. Wherever you go, I’m sure you’ll have a great trip! Weather permitting of course!

Ian

I love Yorkshire. You have some great advice here already. Some of my favourite things in Yorkshire:

-York- Minster, Railway Museum, Jorvik Viking Centre, walking around
-The Dales- Already covered well above
-The coast- There is great walking along the Cleveland Way, particularly between Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby- it's a great way to enter Whitby. Additionally further down you have the Bempton Cliffs RSPB site, which is a great place to see birds tho unfortunately by September the puffins will no longer be around. You can also take a boat from Bridlington to see the cliffs which we really enjoyed last year.
-If you're interested in stately homes at all, there's Castle Howard, which also has beautiful grounds.

Outside Leeds, you also have Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Coal Mining Museum, and Saltaire- I haven't been to any of these but they are all on my list to visit one day- good luck with your planning!

Saltaire is a good shout - it’s a good spot for a rainy day! You can while away hours in the mill building. But the village is worth a wander round as well. I was going to mention (but forgot!) Haworth if you are in any way interested in the Brontes. It’s a more ‘grittier’ part of the southern dales (some would say not the Dales at all, and they’d probably be right) on the edge of the big Leeds/Bradford conurbation, but if you are a fan, I’d say it’s an essential visit. If you’re not a fan, avoid, because it gets mad busy and probably more so given the recent release of the ‘Wuthering Heights’ movie - even though very little, if any, of it was shot in the environs of Haworth.

Ian