YorTours

29/10/2026

MADE A DREAM COME TRUE.....
As their great grandaughter mentioned below; Betty & Gordon totalling 187 years of lifes adventures -my absolute privelege to host -a day in my life of British Guild of Tourist Guides

5 star review
Made our dreams come true, Sept 2026

We had the most amazing day out with our driver guide, Nick from YorTours. For myself and my elderly great grandparents; a combined age of 187 years ........ They never imagined this could be at all possible, and have not stopped talking about it since. From his most gentle and caring nature; his genuine wish to give us all a day to remember - he made it a reality ; the dramatic scenery of the Yorkshire Dales ; and for sharing the most perfect commentary and his carefully chosen lunch stop . We connected with the people we met and the stories told - and recall it long after the day ended.

18/10/2026

Dry stone walling; an art & science as we learnt on our professional guiding course ; a fascinating summary below ⬇️ kindly provided by Yorkshire Treasures

Yorkshire's dry stone walls are characterful, beautiful & enduring, with their own curious language. Smoots, throughs and cripple holes often feature. For it to be a proper dry stone wall, it must be built without mortar, using techniques passed down through generations.

The line of stones on the top of the wall are the coping stones, protecting the structure beneath. The footing is at the bottom of the wall, a firm foundation.

Cripple holes may not sound nice but are essentially an opening at the base of the wall big enough for sheep to pass through. Sometimes they're called hogg hols or smout holes or thirls.

Smoots are smaller openings at the base of a wall, for smaller creatures such as rabbits to pass through (and be caught for food)

Some walls have a set of steps over the wall, a careful stile construction that doesn't damage the wall or allow livestock to pass through. A monolith set into the ground by a gate or stile is a stoop.

Throughs are large stones across the width of a wall that tie the sides together. You may have seen them protuding from a dry stone wall and wondered about their unevenness - they have a purpose!

Sometimes you'll see big boulders at the base of walls, with stones arranged around them to create a wall. These boulders are called orthostats and usually indicate older walls.

A rood is a traditional unit of wall measurement. I think it's 7 yards in Yorkshire.

15/10/2026

Never a more true statement than the 1 below for our profession British Guild of Tourist Guides

Wisdom Thursday 💭

“Being a professional guide isn’t about knowing the most. It’s about knowing what matters.”

Because sometimes the most impressive guide isn’t the one with the longest list of facts, but the one who knows what story to tell, when to tell it, and how to make a visitor care.

Do you agree? What makes someone a truly great tourist guide? 👇

13/10/2026

Storming Norman ( and it’s not Schwarzkopf of the Gulf War ) - no it’s the Normans from across the English Channel ! Just 1000 years anniversary in 2027 - their legacy for all still to see across Yorkshire- great summary below ⬇️ thanks Yorkshire Treasures ( and was the Bayeux tapestry made in France 🇫🇷 I wonder 🤫)

Imagine how the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors might have looked without the influence of the Storming Normans? 2027 is going to be the Year of the Normans, marking the 1000th anniversary of William The Conqueror, and a reminder of the Norman's brutality during their Harrying of the North when livestock were slaughtered and crops destroyed leaving Yorkshire in the depths of famine.

To help control any further rebellions and display a show of might, the Normans built castles – lots of them – first quickly-built timber motte and bailey castles; before more substantial stone structures took over. Castles at Middleham, Skipton, Helmsley, Danby, Mulgrave and Pickering all have their roots in Norman times. Middleham can boast one of England’s largest keeps; while Richmond is one of the best-preserved Norman castles. All hark back a time when Norman lords such as Count Alan at Richmond, Robert de Romille at Skipton, and Walter Espec at Helmsley controlled vast tracts of land.

Once things had stabilised these Norman lords ceded some of the most unproductive land to the church in exchange for being shown mercy in the next life. Great monastic communities sprang up such as Fountains Abbey, Bolton Priory, Rievaulx and Byland Abbeys and Mount Grace Priory. Larger and sturdier stone churches replaced the more humble timber Anglo-Saxon ones, including St Marys Church at Lastingham where the monks built a crypt to honour the place where saint Cedd was believed to have been buried. The crypt is unique as it’s the only surviving Norman crypt in England with a nave, apse and side aisles.

The shape of villages changed too. Just after the Norman Conquest, villages such as Appleton le Moors and Cold Kirby were created with a toft and croft system as the Norman nobility handed out standardised parcels of land on either side of a wide village green to their workers; each was made up of a toft (the dwelling) and a croft (plot of land).

Words by Amanda Brown

13/10/2026

Cistercians of Byland & Fountains Abbeys granges , bickering over each others riches ; resolved by the Scottish raids & the Black Death ? Whatever next you ask ? See below ⬇️ all thanks to Yorkshire Treasures

At the back of St Marys Church in Ramsgill, Nidderdale, is a lone triangular end gable section of a building set into the boundary wall. It might look humble now, but back in the 1100s this wall was part of something a bit grander, forming a section of the chapel which was attached to the chief grange in Nidderdale belonging to the Byland Abbey community of Cistercian monks.

Roger de Mowbray, owner of much of Upper Nidderdale, handed over land to both the Byland and Fountains Abbey monastic communities and let them build a string of granges right across Nidderdale, as far up as Lodge above Scar House Reservoir.
Mowbray’s only stipulation was that boundaries like hedges were to be keep low enough so they didn’t interfere with the line of sight during hunting.

The monks would generally establish granges within a day’s travel of Byland Abbey so with a distance of at least 30 miles, Ramsgill and Lodge would have been at the furthest point of their travels.

Land was cleared of trees and enclosed as the grange farms became established, each staffed by lay brothers who cultivated and harvested the crops, or reared the livestock. For over 200 years they flourished, but even though they were both Cistercian communities, the monks of Fountains and Byland Abbeys didn’t live in complete harmony. Both came to blows over the riches they’d discovered in Nidderdale, in particular the lead mining rights. It led the General Chapter to denounce their bickering as a ‘disgrace to the Order’.

Eventually the monks’ good fortune began to falter when Scottish raiders plundered the abbeys and destroyed the granges in the 1300s; followed soon after by the Black Death wiping large swathes of the population.

Words & photo thanks to Amanda Brown

11/10/2026

5 star Tripadvisor review

Janet, Bill

3 DAYS Yorkshire touring

Nick was great!
He is a font of facts about Yorkshire and beyond! He took us to all the sights we wanted and had great tips on where to eat. He went ABOVE & BEYOND in providing us with a wonderful experience in York and the Yorkshire countryside. An absolute professional British Guild of Tourist Guides

11/10/2026

How fortunate we are as British Guild of Tourist Guides to share experiences with our visitors from afar; and to be recognised for our help & knowledge .....

Brian & Karla, St Louis
5 star Tripadvisor review

"Just finished wonderful day tour of York with Nick. Extremely knowledgeable and personable, Nick shared his wealth of knowledge about York and its significance in the history of England and the Roman Empire. Nick also HELPED us with planning and logistics for ALL OTHER parts of our 3 week journey from INVERNESS to LONDON .......

This man knows a lot!
Thanks Nick!

01/10/2026

Every day is a school day ; perhaps more so for me 🤭 YorTours This view below ⬇️ favoured by John Ruskin above Kirkby Lonsdale I didn’t know existed; next week I’ll be there , all thanks to Yorkshire Treasures

Victorian painter John Ruskin would have had a lively debate with author James Herriot about what constituted England’s best view, as each one declared different spots in Yorkshire.

While James Herriot’s ‘finest view in England’ was Sutton Bank in the North York Moors, Ruskin plumped for a high viewpoint out from St Marys Church in Kirkby Lonsdale that overlooks the meandering River Lune.

When Ruskin visited in 1875 he declared it to be ‘one of the loveliest in England, and therefore the world’.

He wrote: Whatever moorland hill, and sweet river, and English forest foliage can be seen at their best is gathered there. And chiefly seen from the steep bank which falls to the stream side from the upper part of the town itself … I do not know in all my own country, still less in France or Italy, a place more naturally divine, or a more priceless possession of true ‘Holy Land’.”

Thankfully, after the dogged fundraising determination of volunteer group The Friends of Ruskin’s View, together with a contribution from the town council, the viewpoint partially reopened this summer after work completed to repair river erosion and flood damage which had weakened the embankment to the point that access had to be closed in 2021. NB: the walk beyond Ruskin’s View is still closed until the ground is stable enough for it to reopen.

Head out from the Devil’s Bridge along the river path and you’ll reach the tortuous flight of Radical Steps, so-called because they were created in 1820 by Dr Francis Pearson, who didn’t seem to be the most-liked resident because of his strong liberal views. No surprise then that there was strong local opposition to him diverting the public footpath that ran through his garden by building the steps.

Luckily there are several landings as you go up the steps so you can take a breather before you reach the motte at St Marys. Here you can find a bench to savour Ruskin’s View as you look across to the Howgill and Middleton Fells as well as the limestone drama of the Gragareth and Ingleborough Peaks.

Words & photo-Amanda Brown

27/09/2026

The most sincere THANK YOU hand crafted card from D***s & Lisa from Florida ; from their arrival at Manchester 🛬 to Yorkshire, Wynyard Hall for a wedding 💒 to Liverpool; taking in Grade 1 listed Piece Hall , Halifax , Shibden Hall & our most famous female business woman , diarist and adventurer Anne Lister ; Castle Howard and much more . Thank you both with all my heart ❤️ as a professional and fortunate British Guild of Tourist Guides

25/09/2026

another accolade just in for YORKSHIRE - fabulous news for Ripon Museums the WINNER of the tourism award and a much deserved £3.3 million investment into their Workhouse project VisitEngland

Oh well...we only went and won it! £3.3 million investment into the Workhouse and to the heritage city of Ripon. We're so proud that our 'Fairer Futures' project, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and others, made this accolade possible- winner of the Tourism category in the Harrogate Business Awards. The new powerful and compelling experience at the Workhouse tells important untold stories and puts Ripon on the map. So proud, hopefully the first of many awards!