Yorkshire Dales Cottages

Holiday Cottages in Yorkshire Dales

Welcome to the Yorkshire Dales  

Fifty miles north east of Manchester you’ll find one of the loveliest rural regions in the UK.  Covering 680 square miles, the Yorkshire Dales is a National Park teeming with wildlife, breathtaking scenery, a rich heritage and bags of attractions and activities.  A superb location for a self catering holiday, discover for yourself a timeless landscape of rolling green valleys, glittering rivers, peaks and moorland with many vibrant rural communities in picturesque villages built from the local stone.  Spot the famous black faced Swaledale sheep and trademark stone ‘bothys’ that dot the patchwork of fields throughout the Dales, which take in the Pennine Hills, North Yorkshire and Cumbria.

Apart from its natural beauty, the Yorkshire Dales is a living landscape; farmers and small rural communities living and working as they have done for centuries.  The Vikings settled the area and you’ll see and hear echoes of their names in villages such as Arkengarthdale, Aysgarth and Gunnerside.  The Romans built their roads and forts here, the Normans their formidable castles; religious orders came with their awe inspiring monasteries, housing the monks that first made Wensleydale Cheese.  Industry too has played a role in shaping the landscape with mining for lead ore.

Choose from the beautiful spa town of Harrogate with its famous tearooms and garden parks, or Skipton, the ‘gateway to the Dales’.  Walkers love Hawes and Settle, plus Richmond with its Georgian beauty and Norman castle.  Each place offering something special and all a perfect setting for your cheap cottage holiday in the Yorkshire Dales.

Things to do in the Yorkshire Dales

Lace up the walking boots, jump on your bike or take up your reins and you’ll be spoilt for choice in the Yorkshire Dales with a wealth of tracks, paths and bridleways to explore.  For longer hikes the Dales are crossed by The Dales Way, The Pennine Way, The Pennine Bridleway and The Coast to Coast Path, and each village you pass through offers a local pub or tearoom for a welcome cuppa or stronger pick-me-up!

For heritage lovers the Dales Countryside Museum is a great place to find out all about the history of the region, as well as Gayle Mill in Wensleydale, a fully renovated cotton mill and the Yorkshire Dales Mining Museum at Earby.   Head for the battlements of great castles at Skipton, Middleham and Richmond, and explore the beautiful setting and ruins of fabulous Bolton Abbey.  While you’re there hop aboard the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway for a nostalgic trip back in time.

Explore jaw dropping natural wonders including Malham Cove, Goresdale Scar and waterfalls at Hardraw Force, High Force and Aysgarth.  For full on family fun there are more great days out including White Scar Cave, award-winning Hazelbrow Farm in Swaledale, Hesketh Farm Park and Settle Play Barn