Out of office on……

A while ago we'd booked a couple of LivingSocial deals for B&Bs in Yorkshire & The Lakes so decided to tie this in with my birthday..so on Sunday 15 March we drove down to Yorkshire, taking in the sights of the dales on our way to the Warren House B&B which is just 5 miles out of the little village of Grassington. The suite we were staying in was lovely and had it's own little living area and private garden (we would defo recommend staying here if you're in the area!). On arrival the B&B owner (Kate) left us a tray of freshly made cream scones and a pot of tea, so we enjoyed these while I opened my birthday cards and presents 🙂 Having driven all day we didn't fancy heading out for tea so just drive to Grassington and got a few bits from the Spar shop and just chilled out for the evening. After a hearty full english breakfast the next morning we headed eastwards to Ripon, stopping off at Brimham Rocks on the way. The rocks are pretty cool - large formations formed by erosion of the millstone grit which you can just walk around....there's some pics below (unfortunately it was a dull and overcast day so everything looked rather grey!). Ripon is a nice market town with a bustling main square -after grabbing a coffee here we headed out on a 10 mile flat walk from the town to Fountains Abbey, a National Trust estate. The walk gave us a nice glimpse of the countryside and local villages in the area, and then we walked around the deer park and abbey ruins themselves which was interesting and very pretty! Once we arrived back at the car we drove the hour back to the B&B and settled in again for the night (enjoying the free bottle of wine that came with the room!). The next day we packed up and drove over to Malham, winding up and down through the dales taking in the landscape and wildlife. Malham is a very small village in the heart of the dales, and from here we set out on a 7 mile walk taking in the local nature hotspots including Janet's Foss waterfall, Gordale Scar, Malham Tarn (highest glacial lake in Britain) and Malham Cove. It was a really enjoyable walk with really varied landscapes - I'll just point you towards the photos rather than explaining! After Malham we drove up and out of the dales to Windermere where we had booked our next two nights at The Lamplighter hotel right in the centre of the town. That evening we just headed to the Grey Walls pub next door for a few drinks and pie and chips 🙂 The next day the sun was shining as we drove alongside Lake Windermere on our way to Grasmere....it reminded us why we love the lakes so much seeing the mountains and colours from the trees reflecting on the water 🙂 After having a wander around the shops in Grasmere we walked around the lake and returned to sample the famous local gingerbread which was a cross between a biscuit and a cake - nice! We then drove to Ambleside and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the shops. Later in the evening we walked from our hotel down to Bowness-on-Windermere - we've never spent a lot of time here so it was nice to explore the town and visit a few pubs. We had tea at Hyltons (where we had been previously on a trip with Mum) before walking back up the hill to Windermere. Sadly Thursday was our final day of the trip, however the sun was still shining so we took advantage of the nice weather by heading to Keswick to walk up Catbells (which I had never done before). It was a great walk - enough of a hill to get you sweating and well worth the views from the top! We completed the round loop in about 3 hours (taking plenty of time to stop and enjoy the views) and then spent a couple of hours in Keswick looking around the shops and buying some local beers in Booths 🙂 We then hopped onto the motorway and headed back to Edinburgh, which only took 3 hours including a stop-off. This was our first proper outing in the Astra ('The Gherkin') which did us proud - it was great to have a usable boot and central locking! We really enjoyed the trip - it felt like a nice, long break and it was great to visit some places we've never been before whilst also visiting some of our favourite spots. I'm ready to book our next trip already!!