Richmond retreat!
13:15
The bleakest, the cruellest
Month in the chill
No sign of the sweet hearted Lass of the Hill
Just stony faced buildings
Stony faced frowns
Harshest of months in the harshest of towns
Across the cobbles
The shops are closed
The market cross stands prone, exposed
To winter torture
Winds and gales
Sleet, blizzards, rain and hail
Oh Richmond hearts
Beat strong and stout
To see this winter monster out
{'January in Richmond' by Grace Gant}
Recently, whilst I was rifling through some poems about the English countryside, I stumbled across this gem about Richmond and it reminded me of my trip there last year! Thankfully, it wasn't as bleak as this poem depicts and we had a wonderful time. I love that Gant's poem highlights the stony exterior of Richmond; the cobbles and little market alleys were what I loved most about the town, so I thought I would share a few memories from my trip for today's post!
We decided to stay at the YHA Grinton Lodge hostel and opted for one of their wooden camping pods - I've always wanted to try one of these pods because they have lighting and a heater which is great for when the weather isn't great but you still want to be in the outdoors. Unfortunately, the pod we'd booked wasn't available on the first night so we had to camp outside, which wouldn't have been a problem usually but... it turned out we'd forgotten the tent pegs and on the windiest, stormiest night ever, this proved to be quite a hilarious experience - not to mention we were in a field of sheep who kept leaning up against the tent to shield themselves from the wind!!
Anyway, no adventure is complete without a disaster and mum and I seem to be quite prone to things going wrong so we found the whole night pretty funny, even if we did wake up a bit grumpy from our lack of sleep!
Here was our little pod! I believe each pod was named after birds common to Northern Yorkshire which is such a lovely touch! (Ours was called Goshawk)
What I really loved about the pods was that they were set up in a circle around a central campfire and there were lots of picnic benches and places to sit which would be so lovely if there was a group of you staying there and you could convene each night around the fire!
The first stop on our schedule for the weekend was Richmond town centre, a pretty little market town with a castle, museums and a theatre. Unfortunately, we only had time to visit the castle but I'm so glad we did because it was such a treat! The castle is mostly in ruins although the Keep was rebuilt sometime in the 12th century and remains in good condition so I'd recommend going up to the top to get those incredible views of Yorkshire!
Smiles all round as the sun came out!
After Richmond castle, we decided to have a browse around the town and stop for a scone at The Scone Bar in the church square. I would highly recommend it as most of their scones are gluten and dairy free and really yummy! As for the rest of the day, we decided a proper hike was in order! I'd just bought some new hiking boots and was desperate to break them in so we decided to walk the Muker - Keld circular. It was a lovely walk and I took far too many pictures to include in this post so I'll dedicate an entire blog entry to that walk sometime soon!
The following day was devoted to exploring the area on foot. We embarked on a 3 mile trek from Richmond to Easby Abbey, stopping at Richmond Waterfalls along the way to take some pictures.
Easby Abbey was another fantastic English Heritage site. It's free, so you don't have to be a member to visit, and it would be great for a picnic stop if you were doing a longer walk and wanted a nice place to sit down and eat. We noticed a fair few families playing hide-and-seek too and I can see why, it's such a higgledy-piggledy ruin with loads of hidden nooks!
You'll notice I'm wearing shorts in this picture which just tells you how incredible the weather was, we were so lucky!
In the afternoon, we decided to drive up to the Lake District as we were renovating our house at the time and wanted to check on the progress whilst we were relatively close by! This took up pretty much the entire afternoon and evening so we had dinner on the way back at Tan Hill Inn and drove back to Grinton Lodge.
On the third and final day we only had time for one trip to Middleham Castle but it was certainly worthwhile! Like Richmond, Middleham is also in ruins but there's actually lots to do here. There's a great exhibition and lots of information as you walk round including some hilarious statues worth photographing (see below).
Trying to recreate a 'ding dong the witch is dead' moment!
Overall it was a fantastic weekend. As you can probably tell from the schedule, mum and I are pretty much castle fanatics and we see as many as we can wherever we are! That being said, if castles aren't your thing, there's so much more to do in the area. The market is definitely worth a visit and if you have time to fit in a museum or visit the theatre, you won't regret it! The hostel is also situated in a really great position for dale walking so if you want to focus more on the hiking side, you couldn't be in a better place!
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed reminiscing on the trip. I'll definitely be planning another visit there soon so if you have any recommendations for things to do, please let me know!
Thanks for reading and enjoy your week! :)
Jade x
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