The Yorkshire Dales National Park was established in 1954 and, on 1 August 2016, expanded in size by nearly a quarter. It virtually touches the Lake District National Park now (which also grew at the same time) and if you stay in Kendal as we did, you can enjoy easy access to both Parks. This was the last stop of our UK road trip in August and we only had one full day to experience this Park. We needed to find something special about this place so I checked out the Yorkshire Dales National Park's website. They claim to be famous for wonderful scenery: deep valleys ("dales"), heather moorland and some of the finest limestone landscape in the UK. ![]() Malham Cove, a huge curving amphitheatre-shaped cliff face with a large limestone pavement at the top, is a particularly notable site within the Park. Huge, dramatic, awe-inspiring... and made famous in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1). We didn't know that at the time though, so it has nothing to do with our reason for deciding to visit ! We actually decided to visit for the rather less interesting reason that, alongside being an iconic location within this National Park, Making Tracks in the Yorkshire Dales has a child-led walk here (and if you've read some of my previous posts, you will know I'm a big fan of the Making Tracks series). Our highlights from this walk: ![]() 1. We started at the National Park Visitor Centre in Malham, which has all-day parking and toilets - and again, if you've read my previous blog posts, you'll know that as a parent of young kids, I'm always keen on good facilities at the start and end of long hikes. But that's a necessity, not a highlight! What I really wanted to mention is the fabulous Malham marker stone outside the Visitor Centre. It has some amazing carvings of sheep in it and is worth checking out. ![]() 2. The first stop on our walk was Janet's Foss, a small waterfall in the woods. This is a nice little place to stop for lunch. Janet, the queen of the fairies, was said to have lived behind the waterfall. (Yes, I know, not the most fairy-ish of names!) ![]() 3. The next key photo stop was the limestone pavement at Malham Cove. This is a huge and unusual expanse of limestone blocks covering the ground above the Cove. Apparently there are a few other limestone pavements in the UK (especially in nearby Cumbria) but Malham Cove's is the most famous. It was raining when we went and the blocks were incredibly slippery and actually quite dangerous. Basically, not a time to go near the edge! ![]() If you ask me, it was probably also not the time to go high-wire walking either but that was the surprise we came across when we arrived! ![]() 4. The next highlight of this trip came after we descended the cliff top (via the steps!) and got to view Malham Cove from the bottom. It is dramatic and impressive, and bordered by a sweet little river which Simon fell in! He blames me for asking him to pose on a rock in the middle but, hey, they kids made it across without mishap! This vertical cliff face is about 70 metres (230 feet) high and the high-wire walker was a scarily small dot in the sky from down here (look for him in the first photo of this blog post!). So, this was our last National Park for the summer and we are now just over two thirds of the way through our challenge. Next stop: South Downs National Park!
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