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.