A winter weekend exploring Newcastle and the Yorkshire Dales

In early March I escaped London and headed north for a long weekend with a friend. We chose to spend the first night in Newcastle since neither of us had been there and then added on the Yorkshire Dales for a country escape. We started the journey with a Thursday evening train from London to Newcastle and stayed in the County Hotel, which is conveniently across the road from the train station. The staff were all lovely and the location was ideal for a one-night stay arriving via train, but the beds in the standard twin room were really uncomfortable.

The view of Tyne Bridge from The High Level Bridge

We spent half a day wandering around Newcastle, exploring the sites. We started with a delicious brunch at Flore. I really enjoyed the breakfast hash, however, my friend was slightly less impressed with her avocado on toast - it seemed to be pre-made rather than fresh. I wouldn’t let this put you off though, there were plenty of options on the menu and the interiors are gorgeous. Flore is located in the beautiful Central Arcade, which is a good place to start a walk around Newcastle. I saved the main sites we visited in Google Maps:

Central Arcade
Grey’s Monument
Grainger Market
Grey Street
Theatre Royal
Cathedral Square
Newcastle Castle
High Level Bridge
Sage Gateshead
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
Gateshead Millennium Bridge
Quayside

These sites are all easily walkable in a couple of hours and offer plenty of history. I particularly liked the Quayside area and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. After half a day of exploring, we collected our hire car from Europcar Newcastle Railway Station. I wouldn’t usually go out of my way to mention a hire car place but this was honestly the nicest hire car experience I’ve ever had. The employees were all incredibly helpful and for the first time, someone actually greeted us in the car park and showed us the car’s features.

We arrived in Grassington in the early evening and checked into our gorgeous apartment, conveniently located on the main street of the village and surrounded by shops, cafes and pubs. This quaint village feels quintessentially Yorkshire Dales and is incredibly scenic with cute old stone buildings, cobbled lanes and an array of shops, pubs and cafes. I loved it so much, I’d be tempted to stay in the same village again if I go back to the Yorkshire Dales. We had pre-booked dinner at The Devonshire, which served great pub classics in a cosy dining room.

On Saturday, after a wander around Grassington and delicious tea and cake at The Cake House, we set off on an adventure to visit Ribblehead Viaduct, part of the Carlisle-Settle Railway. This enormous viaduct was built between 1870-1875 by more than 2000 men, 100 of whom sadly died during construction. There are several walking trail options around the viaduct that include a great view. We opted for a relatively easy one-hour loop through a farm. There is a pub conveniently located by Ribblehead Station, unimaginatively named The Station Inn. This is an excellent spot to stop for a post-walk drink and maybe even something to eat.

On our way back to Grassington, we found The Courtyard Dairy which sells so many delicious cheeses - we just had to have some. The range is immense and there’s also an onsite wine shop, so it’s definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in the area (and love cheese).

The next day, we decided to do a much longer walk. We chose the Malham Tarn and Cove Circular, which was a 15.9km route I found in AllTrails (which actually became much longer, more details below…). The walk is essentially a figure eight, which starts in the middle and involves a loop around Malham Tarn before heading back around the cove section, which is the busier part of the trail. The second half of the walk is incredibly scenic, including sweeping views from Malham Cove, pretty Janet’s Foss, and wait for it, you have to scramble over an actual waterfall!

This is the part where things went a bit awry for us, we were both terrified! It was winter, the water was running down the waterfall, and it was cold and slippery. Some people made it over the waterfall and some turned back, including us. We could have been sensible and found our way back via a road but instead, we naively thought we could just walk around the hill and up it over the other side. Little did we know at the time that this would lead us on a very long journey off course and to the top of a ridge over a deep ravine, having to scramble over rock fences and dodge cows. Being winter, we were also racing the sunset and very worried about what would happen if the sun went down before we made it out since the footing was incredibly unstable in parts and we were walking next to a literal cliff edge. Of course, there’s a good ending to the story since we did in fact follow the ridge long enough for it to eventually drop away into a shallow creek, which we managed to jump across and find out way back to the car just before the sun went down. It certainly made for a good story!

We finally made it to the end of the ridge

For our last evening, we have a celebratory dinner at a gorgeous old pub in Appletree Wick, The Craven Arms and Cruck Barn. This 16th-century pub is well worth a visit for its old interior full of curios from years gone by. The staff are all very welcoming and the atmosphere is one of a rural village, rather than the more tourist trap vibe of some of the pubs we went to in Grassington. It was actually a tip given to us by the owner of The Old Polishing Shop in Grassington, who suggested visiting during the day following a walk along the creek from Grassington, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time to squeeze this in.

And sadly, that brought the trip to an end, and it was time to make our way back to London. We had booked to drop our hire car off at Europcar in Leeds, and then take the train from Leeds to London, but we did manage to make a quick stop in Skipton, where we had a delicious breakfast at Bean Loved and a quick walk around the town, including the little canal that runs behind Skipton Castle. I loved this long weekend getaway and would definitely like to get back to the Yorkshire Dales sometime.