I while back I was asked by a friend to offer some decent drives around the Dales for relations from Suffolk who were touring the Dales. I was told they couldn’t walk very far but loved scenic routes and enjoyed stopping for the views and a cuppa. No problem I said, and rattled them off half a dozen drives which included some of the best roads to be found in the Dales. I received a very polite response this week from the couple saying how kind I was but they’d only completed one of the routes because the driver had found the journey too stressful! They’d never been up one-in-fours, or unfenced roads with stray sheep roaming all over the place, or with sheer drops falling away down one side. For those living here, using the passes between the Dales just seems the natural thing to do… even this morning, needing to get to Clapham from Gisburn I took the route over tops rather than go along the Ribble valley. What a delight it was driving up the steep-sided Hodder valley and down Tatham Fells from where you could see the distant mountains of the Lake District. All of the Three Peaks and Gragareth were laid out in front of me. I just had to stop at the Great Stone of Fourstone, climb it and soak up the panorama. The more romantic believe that the giant Finn McCool hurled the stone across the Irish Sea in a fit of peak – he can’t have been that angry as it seems he carved out a set of steps on it for us to climb to the top and admire the view.
Photo shows part of the Great Stone of Fourstone looking towards Whernside and Gragareth.

Despite plenty of rain recently, parts of the Leeds-Liverpool canal is still shut west of Gargrave right over into Lancashire. It’s such a great shame for those whose businesses rely on the canal attracting visitors. I was further down (or is it up?) the canal near Kildwick last week (see photo). I enjoyed a short peaceful stroll and super views down (and up) the Aire Valley in some early morning sunshine. The canals all around Yorkshire offer some lovely scenery and in this month’s Dalesman, which goes on sale this week, there is a special feature on our man-made waterways with special photos by John Morrison. On sale now at just £2.35 from your newsagent.

Last week saw me visiting two very contrasting features of the Yorkshire countryside – one so modern it is not yet finished and the other ancient and shrouded in mystery. The one thing they have in common is that I visited them both on terrible days. High on the Nidderdale hills above Greenhow I went to see the building of Coldstones Cut, a new art installation which will attract visitors to this part of Dales. Due to some heavy lifting work going on I wasn’t able to get any closer than you see on the photo above – it’s supposed to open in mid September but judging by the weather on the day it went that date might be a little optimistic. Read more about it in September’s Dalesman (on sale August 25). The following day I was at the other side of York trying my best to dodge the showers on the Howardian Hills. While there is photographed the City of Troy maze (below) for a story in one of my other magazines, The Countryman. No one’s exactly sure how old this little turf maze is but it is thought to be one of only eight in the whole country. The story will appear in October’s issue.

The weather might have been poor this week but at least the rain has brought a bit of drama to the scene here in the Dales. Driving from the office through Wharfedale and up to Cray I witnessed all those waterfalls springing out of the surrounding slopes which looked like some great leaking dam. Down Bishopdale I called in at West Burton to see those pretty falls looking very moody indeed, then it was on to Richmond were the Swale rampaged down the rocks below the castle (see pic above). The river’s power was awesome and despite the greyness of the day the glory was there for all to see.

Have a great Yorkshire Day… I hope you are able to get out and celebrate the glories of the county. Just how much there is to celebrate in Yorkshire was brought home to me on Thursday when I attended the launch of a new book, Gervase Phinn’s Yorkshire Journey. The book, published by Dalesman, contains some stunning photos from all around the county, including the area where he was brought up in the south of the county. Gervase describes his home town of Rotherham as ‘the gateway to the dales’, with tongue firmly in cheek, but if you’ve ever visited the likes of Conisborough or Roche you’ll know there’s a lot to be proud of in that area. I was many miles further north earlier in the week and just had to stop the car to take the above photo. It’s taken on the road from Lofthouse in Nidderdale to Masham… how this part of the county was excluded from the National Park I’ll never know.
To order Gervase’s book call 01756 701033. Details will shortly appear on www.dalesman.co..uk

Being in the exalted position of Dalesman editor I feel able to give out Honorary Yorkshire Folk Awards. Some people are not fortunate enough to have been born within the hallowed boundary… it wasn’t their fault that their ancestors weren’t allowed in. With August 1 (Yorkshire Day for offcumdens) approaching I would like to bestow the honour on two of the country’s best writers, Alan Plater and Alan Ayckbourn. AP, who sadly died last month, was born in Jarrow but moved to the East Riding when he was only three. AA, born somewhere south of Sheffield, has now been associated with Scarborough for more than fifty years - you can read about his time in Scarborough in this month’s edition of Dalesman which is on sale now. I have always admired their work… and they are well worthy of the accolade of honorary Yorkshiremen. Let me know of any nominees you’d like to put forward.
PHOTO: I was over in Richmond earlier this week gathering information for a feature for later in the year, and on the way back called at Ilton, near Masham, to photograph the unusual ‘Druids Temple’. You can read all about the strange construction, hidden in an isolated wood, in September’s magazine.

We may have had some mixed weather for the Yorkshire Show but the attendance figures were amongst the highest in the event’s history – 131,382 over the three days which is a rise for the fourth year in succession. The record stands at 135,111, established in 2006 and last year’s figure was 130,731. Bill Cowling, Show Director, says: “This has been one of the finest Great Yorkshire Shows I can remember. The atmosphere has been tremendous, the standard of entries across the competitive classes has been outstanding, and we have achieved another superb attendance figure.”
My thanks to all those who popped into the Dalesman tent at the show and for the kind words about the magazine.

Had a call from a magazine contributor this week who was complaining bitterly about ‘the heatwave’. He lives in the South East and called me on the same day as I took the above photo, which if you peer into the gloom shows Ingleborough seen from near Victoria Cave above Langcliffe. I sent him the photo because he didn’t believe my verbal description. But even this threatening sky didn’t provide much-needed water for the Dales… as you can see by the photo below, taken 24 hours after the one above, the River Skirfare, which runs through Littondale, has disappeared from sight. It’s not unusual for the Skirfare to vanish underground during summer but with no significant rainfall for several months now the overall situation regarding the county’s water supply is worse than for many a year.

I sometimes think there’s a treasure around every corner in Yorkshire. Driving home from Helmsley during the week I thought I’d take the longer way round, avoiding Sutton Bank… it ended up being more than two hours longer as I couldn’t resist stopping off at Byland Abbey and Coxwold. In the twelfth-century the abbey must have been magnificent – up there with Rievaulx, Kirkstall and Fountains. Even today, the ruins in their idyllic rural setting make you marvel at the skills of those medieval craftsmen. In Coxwold I had to look at Shandy Hall, that quirky little much-modified fifteenth-century building which later became the home of a similarly quirky writer Laurence Sterne. Man has certainly made a mark on this area I thought as I drove by the Victorian folly of the White Horse which was clearly visible on the hillside as I made my way from Coxwold to Thirsk.