Grassington

North Yorkshire

Grassington is a village in the Craven district of North Yorkshire.

The picturesque village is popular with tourists who enjoy its attractive shops and pubs.

Grassington is the largest settlement in upper Wharfedale and has a number of smaller villages and hamlets nearby, including Threshfield, Linton, Hebden, Burnsall, Conistone and Kilnsey.

The village is around 9 miles north of Skipton by road and just over 10 miles west of Pateley Bridge.

Lead was mined in the vicinity of Grassington until the late 19th century, while limestone quarrying is an industry which continues in the nearby area, which is mostly agricultural.

Grassington Town HallAlthough usually referred to these days as a village, Grassington was a market town with regular market days until the latter part of the 19th century and it also has a Town Hall, which is now managed as an events venue by The Devonshire Institute. This provides Grassington with a main hall, small theatre and community cinema.

Grassington Festival in June is a two-week music and arts event in the village and neighbouring settlements. Other big events are a 1940s weekend in September and the Grassington Dickensian Festival (November 30-December 1 and December 7-8, 2019).

Village features

Grassington is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Grassington is on The Dales Way, a signposted 80-mile walking route with Ilkley in West Yorkshire and Bowness-on-Windermere at its end points.

The village is at a bridge over the River Wharfe.

Grassington has local traders and craft shops. Grassington offers bakery goods, clothes, crafts, flowers, furnishings, gifts, jewellery.farmers and occasional markets.

The village has a Post Office branch.

The village has a pharmacy.

Grassington has a choice of pubs.

Cafe and pub food is available in Grassington.

Takeaway food outlets in the village include fish and chips, curries.

The village has a community library.

Grassington has a museum - Upper Wharfedale Folk Museum.

The village has a cinema.

Grassington has a theatre.

Grassington has a community centre.

There are public toilets in the village.

Places of worship: Anglican, Methodist, other. (The Anglican church is at Linton. A Catholic church is in nearby Threshfield).

Grassington has tourist information.

Places to stay in Grassington include hotel, guest house, inn, holiday home accommodation.

Grassington was formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Travel

Bus travel

The village has buses to neighbouring towns and villages.

Road travel

Grassington can be reached via the B6265 .

Places to visit

Yorkshire Dales National Park

Much of the Craven district is within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The National Park offers mountain peaks, beautiful river valleys, attractive villages with country inns, ruined abbeys and some of the finest limestone scenery in the UK with limestone pavements, dry valleys, potholes and underground caves. The area offers excellent hiking and walking territory with paths and trails for people of all abilities. It is a centre for potholing and caving, has mountain bike routes and offers plenty of opportunity to study its rich wildlife. For more information see our page dedicated to the Yorkshire Dales.

Malham Cove

Malham

Malham is a small village in a hill farming community in the Yorkshire Dales National Park which has for many years attracted tourists, walkers and geographers as the location of some of the country's most magnificent limestone scenery. Find out more about Malham.

Bolton Priory and River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey

Bolton Priory

Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire
The beautiful setting at Bolton Abbey in the Yorkshire Dales National Park is one of the most visited monastic sites in Yorkshire. Beside the River Wharfe are the ruins of Bolton Priory, where the nave of the priory church still survives as a parish church. The Augustinian priory was founded in 1154 and continued until the dissolution in 1539. The abbey has been carefully managed by the Devonshire family since 1755 and now has day-fee car parking (£15 a car or £12.50 pre-booked, as at July 2022), also gift shops, tea rooms, restaurants and facilities for weddings and corporate events. There is an extensive network of footpaths around the estate and one ancient right of way is the 60 stepping stones across the River Wharfe. Other paths lead into the ancient Strid Wood beside the river. Bolton Abbey is 5 miles east-north-east of Skipton (7 miles by road) and 5 miles north-west of Ilkley.

More information at

Bolton Abbey visitor website and at the

Priory Church website.
Find on map:

Bolton Abbey

Skipton Castle

The Bailey, Skipton, North Yorkshire
Skipton Castle is one of England's best restored medieval castles, standing between the town of Skipton and the top of a rocky cliff over the Eller Beck. The castle was first built as a Norman fort at the end of the 11th century, but was replaced in stone and in the early 14th century turned into a formidable stronghold after being granted to the Clifford family by King Edward II. Inside, the castle reveals how it was modified over the centuries, including a charming early Tudor courtyard with a yew tree growing at its centre. The castle was the scene of a Royalist last stand in the north during the English Civil War when it withstood a three-year siege until 1645. After the castle yielded, it was ruined by the Parliamentarians in the winter of 1648-9, but between 1657 and 1658 Lady Anne Clifford saw it carefully restored. The castle is open daily.

Find out more at

Skipton Castle website.
Find on map:

Skipton Castle

Embsay station

Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway

1903 Electric Autocar at EmbsayBolton Abbey stationEmbsay, near Skipton, to Bolton Abbey station
Operates from Embsay, about 1.5 miles from Skipton, to Bolton Abbey station about a mile away from the attractive priory ruins and beauty spot beside the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey. The railway runs trains on most days during the summer and at weekends at other times of year, except January. It also has a range of special weekend events, dining trains and footplate and signal box experience courses. Tank engines are the mainstay of steam operations on the line, but the railway also has a collection of historic diesel locomotives. Also running on the line some days is a restored hybrid electric railcar, which was way ahead of its time when built in York in 1903.

More information at the

Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway website.
Find on map:

Embsay Station

Ingleborough Cave

Near Clapham

This show cave about a 1-mile walk from the centre of Clapham village is one of the natural wonders of the Yorkshire Dales which has been attracting visitors over a period of 180 years. Underground tours along concrete paths in floodlit passages reveal a world of stalactites and stalagmites. The cave is open daily from mid-February to the end of October. Not to be missed if visiting the cave is Trow Gill, a short walk further up the valley from the cave entrance. The spectacular ravine was carved by the melt waters of the ice age.

More information at the

Ingleborough Cave website.
Find on map:

Ingleborough Cave

Kilnsey Park

Kilnsey Park Estate, off B6160 at Kilnsey
The scenic Kilnsey Park Estate has a cafe, local produce shop and an activity centre centred around its trout farm, offering fly fishing and family fun fishing lakes. It also offers an insight into nature through its trout raceways, reserve of wildflowers, red squirrel enclosure, butterfly gardens and bee observation hive and has farm animals and children's play areas.

More information at the

Kilnsey Park Estate website.
Find on map:

Kilnsey Park

Stump Cross Caverns

On B6265 Hebden Road, near Greenhow Hill

Situated around 5 miles west-south-west of Pateley Bridge, Stump Cross Caverns are show caves with some impressive stalactites and stalagmites among the limestone features reached by steps leading beneath the ground. A cafe with fine views across the nearby hills is also situated at the show cave entrance.

Find on map: Stump Cross Caverns

Emergency services

North Yorkshire Police

North Yorkshire Police website.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service website.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust website.

Local government

Civil parish council

Grassington Parish Council
Provides some local services in the area.
Link to council website:

Grassington Parish Council

District authority

Craven District Council

Craven District Council is one of the seven large district authorities within the county of North Yorkshire.

It covers more than 450 square miles of the western area of North Yorkshire with its administrative centre in Skipton.

It has boundaries with the Richmondshire and Harrogate districts of North Yorkshire, the Bradford district of West Yorkshire and with Lancashire and Cumbria, including parts of both counties which were formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Much of the district is within the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The council is made up of 30 councillors. They are elected for 4-year terms with one-third of the council elected each year in three out of four years.

The North Yorkshire County Council will absorb the services of Craven District Council and six other district councils as a unitary authority area of more than 3,100 square miles from April 2023.

Link to Craven District Council website.

The political composition after the May 2019 election was:

151 Con Ind832 1

30 members

County authority

North Yorkshire County Council
Includes Craven and six other non-unitary districts of North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire County Council website.

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner North Yorkshire
Covers the county of North Yorkshire and City of York.

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner North Yorkshire website.

National government region

Yorkshire and the Humber

Ceremonial county

North Yorkshire

Historic

-1974 In the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Also in Yorkshire.guide

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