Forbidden Corner

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Forbidden Corner; I did enjoy it though apart from when I nearly got stuck in a tunnel that was too small even for me, and I chickened out of going in to the dungeons because it was dark and there were spiders on the ceiling.  

First, we had to walk through a giant mouth pretending to be a doorway and we reached a sign saying 'there's no way back the way you came' which was slightly unnerving.  I won't go in to too much detail about the rest of the way round because I don't want to spoil it but, watch out for the water.

Blossom Trees

Another reason Saltburn is one of my favourite coastal towns is the blossom.  For the past few years when I’ve wanted a cliché picture of spring blossom, this has been the best place to come.  There’s a row of pink blossom trees stretching along the path that takes you to the valley gardens and it is usually quiet midweek, so I could take as many photos as I liked!

Scarborough

I love Scarborough, I’ve been loads of times before when I was little and not much had changed since the last time I’d been, maybe eight years ago.  (Except they’ve changed the swans to dragons at Peasholm Park.)  I went on the day that Boro got promoted to the Premier League last week; my boyfriend supports them and they’re technically my home team, so I was hoping they would win.

Places to visit in Scarborough:

Peasholm Park

Peasholm Park is a park in the middle of Scarborough near to the seafront.  It has a lake where you can go around on a pedalo swan dragon and you can get to the island in the middle via a bridge.  We peddled around the island twice before returning our dragon and walking over to the middle where you’ll find a Japanese themed garden area, a waterfall which you can see from the water, picnic area and fighting geese.  There’s a bandstand in the middle of the water and model boats, although I’m not sure if they’re still used anymore.  Also, they have a mini putting green just across from the boats.

North Bay Railway

The railway station is across the road from Peasholm Park; you can get the miniature train to the North Bay and back again through a tunnel that used to terrify me when I was little, even though it’s actually tiny!  At the other end, there’s mini golf (which we didn’t play because it was too windy) and the beach.  It was freezing so we got the train back and headed for the arcades.

The Arcades and Harbour

We had fish and chips in a café on the sea front and had a quick walk around the harbour.  They had a Ferris wheel and other rides set out along the path.  There are so many different arcades along the sea front; we went in quite a few and I ended up losing most of our 2ps.  I even got turned away from one because they said that I needed my ID to play the roulette wheel, apparently!

Tour de Yorkshire

I was in Great Ayton, a little village in North Yorkshire, on Sunday to watch the Tour de Yorkshire – it was being held in the area for the first time so we decided to go and watch.  The village had been decorated in blue and yellow colours to welcome the cyclists and a number of painted bikes were left along the route.  We waited to watch the bikes ride past and they came and went within a couple of minutes, followed by team cars and TV cameras.  

Hutton Le Hole

Hutton le Hole is on the North York Moors and we ended up here on our drive out the other day.  It was so misty on the moors that you couldn’t see far in front of you at all – the pictures don’t show how bad it was – but once we got to Hutton le Hole it was a lovely sunny day if you ignored the blustery wind.  Most of the snow has gone now but you could see the last of it on the very highest parts of the moors.

The village was decorated in preparation for the Tour de Yorkshire (which was actually last week by the time this post goes up!)  After a little walk we drive back over the misty moors and stopped at Blakey Ridge for dinner; they do some of the best chips ever.

Farndale Daffodils

Farndale is a village on the North York Moors, well known for its daffodil walk. The daffodils at Farndale are miniature ones and stretch all along the riverbank. They are a native plant and bloom from mid-March to late April, which is when the area is at its busiest.

The best way to see the daffodils is to take the 3 ½-mile linear route alongside the River Dove, with the Daffy Café as a mid-way pit-stop.

Trip to Muker

Muker is a small village in Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales. After researching my family tree, I found out that my ancestors furthest back on my mam’s side were born in Muker; so I decided to go.  It was a long journey, about two hours from where I live so we had to set off early in the morning.  We had a bit of a pit-stop in Raith and got out to admire the view. I’ve added Raith to my list of places to see since it was only a fleeting visit.

As we got nearer to Muker there were signs saying that the road we needed to take was closed. The SatNav couldn’t deal with this and took us in a circle around Gunnergate. We spoke to one of the men working in the road and it turned out that it was the only road into Muker; we had to make a detour up one of the steepest hills I’ve ever driven up, adding about half an hour onto our trip!

Finally, we arrived in Muker. We parked next to the river Swale and walked up towards the churchyard.  The walls as we walked along were covered with purple flowers.  The only tea room in Muker was closed on a Tuesday. It was Tuesday. So, instead we drove a bit further and went to Thwaite.

On the way home from our road trip to Muker, we had a little bit of an issue with the Sat Nav.  Okay, so it wasn’t actually the Sat Nav’s fault – we thought we knew better – but we ended up going home completely the wrong way and ending up driving through another county – Cumbria.  It was definitely the scenic route, and I made the most of the detour.  We passed Tan Hill Inn, which is the highest pub in the UK and had to stop to let the sheep cross the road.