Hartley Hare Barn

11/04/2026

28/03/2026

Discover why Town End Farm Shop near Malham is earning rave reviews for its food, service and stunning Yorkshire Dales setting.

20/03/2026

On the doorstep…

A folly, an enormous 'tunnel', a famous train station and the world's oldest music hall: Settle has more than its fair share of historic attractions within a beautiful setting, with 76 listed buildings. The most prominent one is the Grade 1 listed The Folly Museum and Coffee House, Settle which has a really good cosy cafe too. The Folly name is a bit misleading - the beautiful building was so-named after being empty with no obvious purpose for a while.

There are plenty of other reasons to Visit Settle. Within the town, narrow ginnels (or gennels or whatever you call them in your area...) thread their way in and out of the square.

Settle Victoria Hall- The World's Oldest Music Hall is just round the corner and has an excellent programme of events. It's worth going to, just to admire the imaginative decor in the loo!

There are two other outstanding landmarks nearby - 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.

Look out for the regular guided walking tours of Settle, which I think will start again at Easter.

13/02/2026

Ever wondered at signs mentioning the 'West Riding' or stones at the edge of bridges with a WR marking on them? The story goes back a long way… over 1100 years when Yorkshire’s boundaries were established.

Yorkshire was divided into three ridings, the North, East and West Ridings, plus York. 'Ridings' is from an old Norse word meaning a third (probably ‘thridding’). Each of these areas were then divided into administrative units known as 'wapentakes'. Parts of the Yorkshire Dales were previously in the West Riding (and North Riding higher up in the Dales and over towards the North York Moors), until 1974 when the boundaries changed.

Many of the old road signs like the one in this photo remain, literally a sign of former times! Another related curiosity you might spot are marker stones fixed at the side of roads by bridges (such as in Kettlewell and Grassington), often bearing the initials W.R. (for West Ridings). Bridges were essential to travellers but not everyone wanted to pay for their upkeep. The marker stones at the side of the bridge show that West Riding council had liability for maintaining it.

Do you have a favourite sign? Or perhaps spotted some of the bridge markers?

26/01/2026

A wonderful experience to see, walk by or travel on the train when staying at Hartley Hare Barn. There are super individual towns to stop off at along the way - Appleby, home of the famous Horse Fair and Kirkby Stephen, to name just two. If I say this journey is magical… you will have to come and see if you agree yourself.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Settle-Carlisle railway, which opened for passengers in 1876 (freight the year before). The Ribblehead Viaduct is one of the most iconic pieces of Victorian railway engineering in the UK, carrying the Settle–Carlisle line across the open moorland of Batty Moss.

📸 Wendy McDonnell |

12/11/2025

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30/06/2025

Foodie heaven… so many of the recommendations on the doorstep of Hartley Hare Barn. Come and stay and tick the venues off your list of Must Visit 🍽️🤩

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17/06/2025

Come and relax and restore in our sumptuous bathroom at Hartley Hare Barn. Bath House luxurious toiletries including bath soak and hair care, fluffy warm towels on the heated towel rail, underfloor heating for cosy toes, an illuminated mirror and electric toothbrush charger with shaver socket... what more could you need! Come and see for yourself

https://boutique-retreats.co.uk/luxury-cottages-yorkshire/settle/hartley-hare-373.html

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19/05/2025

Wonderful Settle… so much to see, admire and enjoy 💚

A folly that's not a folly, a naked man whose name we don't know: Settle is full of curiosities and special features. How many of these have you visited?
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* You may have noticed The Folly Museum and Coffee House, Settle but have you been inside? It's a wonderful building, carefully restored and home to a museum and cafe serving excellent cake. Settle Folly is intriguingly named but isn't really a folly. It's a very striking building built in 1679 by a lawyer called Richard Preston. After his death it was left empty for a when and was then known as a folly, something seemingly without a real purpose.

It's incredible to think of some of the subsequent uses for the Folly - it's certainly been versatile! In past years it's been a bakery, warehouse, furniture shop, bank, salvage business and even a fish and chip shop.

* Castleberg towers above Settle and has its own story to tell.. The views are good too!

* The Grade I and II listed buildings around the Market Place. Look for plaques commemorating Elgar's stay in Settle; Benjamin Waugh, founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; and the wonderfully named Goad & Butchers solicitors

* Settle Victoria Hall- The World's Oldest Music Hall Victoria Hall, a Grade II listed original Victorian Music Hall - go to a performance and enjoy the creatively decorated loos!

* Settle Station, famous thanks to the Settle Carlisle Railway CRP signal box & water tower

* Gallery on the Green, one of the world’s smallest galleries - in a former telephone kiosk

* Ye Olde Naked Man Café - one of England's most photographed cafés

* Victoria Cave where evidence of prehistoric hunters was found - take care when visiting

* Settle Hydro - a reverse Archimedean screw system generating electricity for the community

If you Visit Settle, you're also within easy distance of these other treasures:

* Hoffman Kiln
* Ribblehead Viaduct Visitor Centre
* Courtyard Dairy, award-winning specialist cheesemongers

Which other places would you recommend to a Settle visitor? Best places to stay?

Market place photo: Stephen Garnett

26/08/2024

13/08/2024

Do you prefer a squeeze or a kissing gate? Anyone who enjoys walking in the Yorkshire Dales will be familiar with the many different methods landowners use to enable walkers to use footpaths without letting out their livestock.

Miles and miles of dry stone walls criss cross the landscape, enclosing fields where sheep and cows graze. You'll spot some breaks or 'squeezes' in stone walls, created by vertical stones, which you can just about manage to squeeze through. You'll also find layered steps creating out of stone slabs walking over a dry stone wall.

I particularly love the many make-shift gates that were clearly made many years ago, often 'it'll do for now' creations, bound together with baler twine, that have somehow managed to hang on for years and years.

Sometimes there are more sophisticated solutions, with proper springs or weighted rocks to help the gate to close, but mostly they're very simple affairs.

Kissing gates dispense with the need for a 'please close the gate' sign and reduce the chances of an errant tup finding the ewes. They're easy for humans to use but tricky for livestock to figure out. The gate swings so that they're just kissing room to pass. There are many variations of this - there's even a double one along the riverside walk at Burnsall.

There are countless wooden stiles abound, often quite rickety and some with little dog doors at the bottom. Whatever the format, stiles, gates and wall squeezes abound, often beautiful in their simplicity and usefulness.

Photos of your favourites?

Image by Andrew Locking