The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
The ultimate busman’s holiday
As bus journeys go, my trip on the small green 830 Frequenta service across North Yorkshire seems a promising prospect as we rumble over the cobbled streets of Richmond and head out towards open country. For this is the Northern Dalesman, the only way of crossing the Yorkshire Dales National Park by public transport. It makes its 40mile, once-weekly journey from Richmond in the north-east to Ingleton on the western boundary.
It’s a route so lovely that BBC Four is to screen a slow-travel special this weekend, consisting of little more than a montage of images from several cameras rigged around the bus – with captions explaining parts of the journey.
It’s a warts-and-all, two-hour journey of a programme, up hill and down dale.
The scenery speaks for itself: farmers’ fields knitted with 5,000 miles of dry stone walls, tiny villages where the bus has to squeeze through impossibly narrow gaps between houses, and high mountain passes over rugged moorland.
If you think watching paint dry would be more interesting, think again. The bus’s gentle winding passage along country lanes, some with vertiginous views, becomes increasingly hypnotic.
The 830, which begins its journey in Middlesbrough before travelling to Richmond, runs only on Sundays and bank holidays from early May to late September, and there’s just one round-trip journey a day from each end point. This means – depending on where you alight – you can have between six and three hours at your stop of choice before heading back in the opposite direction.
I decide to make my stop in Ingleton, a small Dales village of stone houses, with a smattering of mostly independent shops and a lovely walking trail among waterfalls. Here Cathy Burrows, who has ridden the bus from her home town in Darlington, also jumps off – with most of the other passengers. She takes the 830 a couple of times a month to catch up with a friend who drives up from nearby Bentham. “There are loads of things to do here,” she enthuses. “Last week we spent time in the open-air swimming pool. This week, we’re going for a long walk before heading for lunch.”
It seems like sound advice, so I decide to sample part of the Ingleton Falls Trail, eat excellent fish and chips at the local chippy and fit in a pint at the cosy Three Horse Shoes pub before the return journey.
On the way back passengers are all excitedly swapping stories about the day’s adventures. By the time we arrive back in Hawes, where the bus offers a five-minute break for passengers to stretch their legs, we disembark en masse and rush for ice creams at the Stage 1 Cycles bike shop and café.
“Some years ago the last service stretched into November before it closed for winter,” Cathy says. “Everyone brought some mince pies and we had a little Christmas party on the bus back.”
Does the Northern Dalesman follow the most beautiful bus route in Britain? James Ellis climbs aboard to find out
Richmond
Richmond is the most common place name in Britain but, for Yorkshire folk, this is the only one that counts. The Georgian market town has a cobbled square, an 11thcentury castle and the Georgian Theatre Royal. Military buffs will enjoy the Green Howards Museum, while the former train station is home to an arts centre, a restaurant and heritage centre (richmond.org).
Reeth Ice Cream Parlour
First stop is the impossibly pretty village of Reeth, which comes to life with walkers and musicians each May and June for the Swaledale Festival. The rest of the year, the family-run parlour, with 16 flavours of Brymor ice cream made on a farm down the road in Jervaulx, is a great spot to stop before taking a riverside walk. Bus travellers get a free cup of tea when they show their ticket (reethicecreamparlour.co.uk).
Dales Bike Centre, Fremington
If you jump off at Reeth, you’ve a good six hours to explore before the return; ample time for the 10-minute walk to Fremington to hire a bike to explore Swaledale on two wheels. The Dales Bike Centre hires out mountain, road and hybrid bikes,
Hawes
Wensleydale is the only major dale named after a town valley as it carries the Settle-Carlisle Railway trains. The surrounding grounds, a scheduled Ancient Monument, contain the remains of the shanty towns occupied by the navvies who helped construct it.
White Scar Cave
Waterfalls, caves and potholes are features of the Dales’ limestone topography – and one of the more famous sights is this cave, reckoned to be the longest in Britain. Tours last around 80 minutes, with a mile of walking, so sturdy shoes are a must, as is layered clothing (£9.95/£6.50; whitescarcave.co.uk).
Ingleton Falls Trail
The 830 route culminates in the village of Ingleton, famed for this four-mile trail along the rivers Twiss and Doe, passing eight major falls and many rapids. The path is uneven, with occasional flights of steps, so wear hiking boots for the two-and-ahalf-hour walk. (Adult £6, child £3; ingletonwaterfallstrail.co.uk).
Ingleborough Pony Bus
An extended circular bus service from Ingleton fills the four-hour gap while waiting for a return to Richmond. Taking two hours, it heads back up to Ribblehead before visiting Settle and the village of Clapham, taking in views of Ingleborough Mountain – one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks (dalesbus.org/pony.html).