I like to visit Yorkshire at least once a year and had originally intended to travel on the 23rd of May and had booked into the Harrogate Travelodge for 2 nights, but a late change of plan meant that I needed to travel on the 24th of May, and an extortionate room rate at the Travelodge for the night of the 25th May led to another change of plan and a stay on the second night at the Scotch Corner A1 Travelodge, certainly not the most salubrious but convenient for Swaledale and Richmond and, on this date at least, cheap!
Setting off early on the Tuesday morning my plan, as usual, was to find a Greggs for breakfast but I almost "blew it" and it was quite late in the morning when I finally stopped and got my hand on a sausage bap and a coffee.
In a departure from my more usual destinations I had decided to spend most of the first day in Knaresborough, partly because I haven't been there for about 40 years and partly because I had recently read a novel by J R Ellis entitled "Murder At St. Anne's" which was based in the town.
Unusually for me some "Proper Prior Planning" (the type that prevents "Piss Poor Performance", AKA "The 7 P's") meant that I was armed with the post code for what I thought was the best car park from which to explore the town, and I duly arrived and parked up. All in all I spent about 4 hours in and around the town, taking images of various locations including the River Nidd, the Viaduct, the Castle and the Market Place.
I sourced some lunch from a local bakery (either luckily or unluckily, depending on which way you look at it, Blind Jack's Traditional Ale House was closed) and after devouring about 2000 calories, decided to have a walk along the river away from the town centre; it was a pleasant stroll and I was rewarded with no less than five sighting of kingfishers (I estimated 3 different birds) in the space of about 15 minutes.
By now the pull of the Winter Gardens (J D Weatherspoon) in Harrogate was getting too strong to resist so I set off for Harrogate and arrived at the car park in The Ginnel (adjacent to both the Winter Gardens and the Travelodge) and paid for parking through to 10 am the next day (not cheap but it would cover me until I had returned to the Winter Gardens for breakfast!).
The price of beer in Weatherspoon's never ceases to amaze, but to get a pint of Old Peculier for something like £1.70 (after deducting my 50p CAMRA discount) seemed like the bargain of the century. With "discretion being the better part of valour" I called time after a couple of pints and after checking in at the Travelodge made my way to Catch where, if memory serves me, I enjoyed Haddock and Chips (cod had been removed from the menu, either unavailable or too expensive).
My plan for Day 2 was to drive to Swaledale via Masham and West Burton and to then return to Scotch Corner via Richmond. Clearly it is rude to visit Masham and not visit the Theakston's Brewery so after a couple of aborted attempts I found a parking space in the Market Place and set off on foot for The Black Bull in Paradise (The Theakston Visitor Centre and Brewery Tap). My planning was not perfect; it hadn't opened but after a couple of circuits of the Market Place it was "opening time". My intention was to spend a huge amount of money on a newly developed spirit named Spirit of Old Peculier (there's a clue as to what it is in the name!); at around £40 a bottle it isn't cheap! Whilst browsing in the shop I heard another visitor enquiring about a brewery tour; it transpired that it started in about 15 minutes and there were spaces; it seemed rude not to so I duly embarked on my second tour of the brewery (the first one being about 15 years earlier). Returning to the bar I elected to try 3 x 1/3rd pints which were included as part of the tour. I selected XB, Best Bitter and Barista Stout, a relatively new addition to the range and, as the name suggests, infused with coffee. It was good enough to persuade me to take several cans away with me together with other "essential" items which brought my final spend into 3 figures!
Next stop was West Burton, a regular haunt but it's always worth a quick visit to Cauldron Force. On this occasion I decided to avoid Aysgarth and instead headed straight to Swaledale, stopping off at the famous view of the barns near to Thwaite before moving onto one of my favourite locations, Wain Wath Falls near Keld where there was plenty of water! Given my extended visit to Theakston's I reluctantly decided to give both East Gill Force and The Tan Hill Inn a miss and returned to Richmond Market Place in time to get some pies from The Proper Pie Shop for dinner. It was then a quick walk down to the falls on the River Swale (and a much slower walk back up) before driving over to Scotch Corner for the night.
The next day did not get off to the best start when I managed to either order (or at least receive) bacon baps instead of sausage baps at the Greggs outlet at the Services; at least I didn't have to queue too long (but long enough!). The day took a further turn for the worse when, on taking an unusual route home to avoid some heavy traffic, a tipper in front of me decided to shower me with stones resulting in a massive crack in my windscreen and, eventually, a £70 excess to get it replaced, but all in all an enjoyable trip.