The Yorkshire Dales.....
North Yorkshire is England’s largest and most rural county; recently being officially nominated as the most beautiful. To its east is the Moors National Park and to the west, separated by the arable Vales' of Mobry and York is the 685 square miles of the Dales National Park. Immediately adjoining the eastern edge of Dales National Park is the nationally designated Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which covers 233 square miles of the most stunning countryside in England
Ellingstring, our home, is located within the AONB and on its border with the Dales National Park, in an area known as Mashamshire; an ancient shire that is much locally quoted but never shown on any sign
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 One almost unique feature of both the Dales National Park and the AONB is that neither contains what could be regarded as a ‘main’ or busy road; there are a few two-way 'A' roads but even these are relatively light with traffic with some reducing on sudden occasion to a single vehicle width
Such is the vastness of the area it is possible to drive around for hundreds of miles without coming across a town, heavy traffic or the other blights of this century; indeed most travel can be on just narrow lanes |
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 Within the Yorkshire Dales all the hamlets, villages and small market towns are of traditional stone, with field and boundary walls of only dry stone build
There are scores of individual dales {a dale is in fact a valley named after its river}, each of which have their very own distinct character and landscape, including mountainous ranges with rocky sides, purple heather moors, forests and arable fields; all being of what can only regarded as 'true' countryside and totally tranquil
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 Treasures abound such as waterfalls, lakes, castles and abbeys; all in the setting of an unspoilt, natural and beautiful landscape
The pace of life is slow and peaceful; in many respects it is like going back hundreds of years; even the 20th century has yet to catch up. It is hard to believe that such a wonderful place still exists in an otherwise overcrowded England; it is a world on its own
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