Carol's Places

06/04/2025

Who doesn’t love tea & cake?
Why not try these favourites?

5 of the best...places for coffee and cake in the Yorkshire Dales 🍰☕

We asked the YDMT team where their favourite places for cake were in the Dales! The list was VERY long (we clearly all love cake), so keep your eyes peeled for future recommendations, but to start with, here are some team favourites:

🏡The Old School Tea Room at Hebden: https://www.theoldschooltearoom.com/

They’re open 7 days a week, 10am-5pm (4pm on Sundays) and offer a selection of delicious homemade dishes and tasty cakes using locally sourced ingredients. Their Vintage Afternoon Tea was voted in the top 7 Afternoon Teas under £30 in the UK by The Times newspaper April 2024 ☕


🍴 The Folly Coffee House, Settle: https://thefolly.org.uk/

Open Monday-Saturday, 10am-4pm, this award winning café was crowned Museum Café of the Year at the 2023 Museum + Heritage Awards and is rated #1 café in Settle on TripAdvisor! So definitely worth a visit if you’re in Settle over the Easter break.


☕ The Bivouac Café, Swinton Estate: https://www.swintonestate.com/dining/bivouac-cafe/

Opening times for this café are Monday-Sunday: 9am-4pm (can vary seasonally), you can enjoy homemade cakes and sweets served daily, along with food and drinks served from the Bivouac Café’s kitchen!


🚴‍♀️ Dales Bike Centre, Swaledale: https://www.dalesbikecentre.co.uk/pages/cafe-and-cakery

This gem is open from 9am-5pm everyday, with over 25 different kinds of cake on display most days, this place definitely needs to be on your hit list!

🧘‍♂️ Retreat Tearoom & Bistro, Grassington: https://www.retreatgrassington.co.uk/

They are open 9:30am-4pm everyday, and are proud to offer a variety of cuisine to suit all tastes, including Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Afternoon Teas, Vegan and Vegetarian menus! They are muddy boot and dog friendly in the bistro and coffee shop, perfect after a long walk.grassington

Let us know in the comments where you recommend visiting 👇

📸 The Old School Tea Room, Hebden

03/04/2025

Settle or Brunscliffe? Slippy slops, shambles, climbers and cosy crime - quite a combination in one lovely place. What am I talking about? Settle has 76 listed buildings including the famous The Folly Museum and Coffee House, Settle, - a good way to Visit Settle and discover their history is to join one of the weekly guided heritage tours* where you'll learn about slippy slops, holy rollers and blue guardstone.

One of Settle's famous landmarks is the Shambles (the arched building), which takes its name from a corruption of the old English name for the shelves used to display meat - fleshammels. This would have been a market not just for meat, but also for live animals. The base of the current building dates from the 17th century, when it was a covered market hall. In 1780, a single-storey row of cottages was built on top, then partly demolished with an extra storey built on them.

You can't miss Castlebergh Crag which dominates the town and rises 120 feet from its base. "The Crag" is part of the North Craven limestone fault, formed around 360 million years ago, when an earthquake caused the older rocks, such as limestone to ride over the newer gritstones. There are more than 20 bolted climbing routes on its face but you don't need to climb up to top to enjoy the view. There's an entrance on Castlebergh Lane, giving access to a walkable but steep path leading around the crag to the flagpole. Display boards along the route give details of flora and fauna to be spotted, and the geological history of the crag and its immediate area.

Cosy crime? Settle's a very safe lovely place but it's also known as 'Bruncliffe' in The Dales Detective series of books. Julia's 10th book in the series, Date with Destiny, is out today. You can buy it from Limestone Books, in the Shambles, which might be the inspiration for Brian (IYKYK). The books are great stories, and it's also fun to spot the settings and guess at the origin of some of the characters.

Thanks to Richard Handscombe for some of the heritage detail. The 2025 program of heritage walks begins on Thursday 10th April. If you’d like to know what the Blue Guardstone is, what Holy Rollers do, or discover the attraction of Slippy Slops, join on the 10th for this 90-minute stroll around Settle. At just £5 per person, places can be booked in advance at the Tourist Information Centre (where the walk starts), or paid for on the day.
Photo: Stephen Garnett Photography

07/04/2024

A great editorial

A naked man, dozens of flowerpots, ancient buildings, dramatic natural beauty, a folly (that isn't really), an enormous 'oven' and the best cheese - where can you find them all? Visit Settle and you'll quickly realise this is no ordinary small town.

Settle's setting is beautiful - it's very close to the Three Peaks and some of Ribblesdale's finest landscapes. You can enjoy a great view from Castleberg. Within the town, narrow ginnels (or gennels or whatever you call them in your area...) thread their way in and out of the square. There's a lot of history, with 76 listed buildings, The Folly Museum and Coffee House, Settle are open to visitors. The Folly name may be a misnomer, as it wasn't built as a folly but was so-named after being empty with no obvious purpose for a while. Now it's a very welcoming attractive building. Settle Victoria Hall- The World's Oldest Music Hall is just round the corner and has an excellent programme of events.

There are two other outstanding 'landmarks' - the railway station where you can board the Settle Carlisle Railway CRP and the incredible Hoffman Kiln - you'll have to visit to understand its scale and industrial beauty.

Settle has masses of great independently-owned shops, galleries, cafes and pubs, and a great community spirit. This led to the creation of the Settle Hydro and later to the Settle Flowerpot Festival which delights visitors with a trail of dozens of amazing flowerpot creations every Summer.

A short drive away is The Courtyard Dairy which attracts cheese pilgrims in search of cheese wisdom, cheesey pizzas and some of the best farmhouse cheese imaginable.

Thanks to Julia Chapman and The Dales Detective (9th book in the series just out and I've finished it already - it's excellent and I'm in awe of Julia's 'scheming mind'!), visitors are also coming to see what life is really like in "Bruncliffe" which is based on Settle.

You're probably wondering about the naked man? There are a couple of interesting explanations for Ye Olde Naked Man Café & Bakery's name - look for the small black figure date stone, as you munch their delicious cakes.

What other aspects of Settle do you love?

Image thanks to Stephen Garnett Photography