Austwick, home to two of our favourite campsites in the Yorkshire Dales
Just five miles north of Settle, Austwick is a classic Dales village through and through. Think traditional stone cottages alongside sleek Grand Designs-style barn conversions, all overlooking rolling green fields. Visit in spring, like we did last weekend, and you’ll be treated to the sight (and sound!) of hundreds of lambs soaking up the April sunshine.
It’s the kind of place where you’re just as likely to spot a farmer on a quad bike with a collie riding shotgun, as you are to see an open-top Lamborghini cruising past on a Sunday drive through the countryside.
With its picture-perfect setting, village corner shop-meets-post office, a small but well-equipped children’s playground, and quite possibly the best pub in the world (!), Austwick makes a gorgeous spot for a short break.
In every direction from the village, well-marked public footpaths lead you as far into the countryside as your legs will carry you. A short flat stroll from the centre will take you to a pleasant stream and a perfect place to paddle, complete with a rope swing and a fun little slab bridge. This is just down the road from the playground, so it’s ideal for young families to feel they’ve covered both bases.
You don’t have to head far up the hill to hit the Pennine Bridleway, and with height, comes views. Perfectly suitable for little legs (and horses), you’re soon greeted with what makes this part of Yorkshire famous…the craggy outcrops and distinctive limestone features that mark the Dales landscape.
The Austwick area is home to the Norber Erratics, which the geologists in the room will know to be huge boulders left behind after the end of the Ice Age. These boulders are what gives this part of Yorkshire its distinctive look, coupled with limestone pavements cut away into the hillside, and you feel like you’re in a different landscape entirely.
A short climb up into Oxenber wood, which separates Austwick from the neighbouring village of Feizor, and your view of the Dales widens, the distinctive peaks coming into view beyond the village. The option to walk into Feizor makes for a round-trip that promises cake and more at Elaine’s Tea Room, an award-winning café that welcomes muddy boots, dogs and anyone else you’ve brought along.
Once you’re back in the village, or if you’ve not actually left yet – a trip to The Game Cock Inn, Austwick is a must. It’s important to then try and resist the temptation to spend the whole weekend there! We’ve been visiting Austwick and The Game Cock since 2012, and I still think about the piece of Malteser cheesecake we had on our very first visit. It’s that good!
Yorkshire hospitality, beers and décor meet French style and cuisine at this unique village pub. And when I say pub, what I mean is bar/ restaurant/ patisserie, and, tea shop. Yes, it’s a lot to cram into a small space, but they do it wonderfully.
The layout is typical of Yorkshire village pubs, in that it’s higgledy piggledy, with several smaller spaces within the main pub footprint. There’s a smaller room with more of a restaurant feel, a side room for bigger parties, and the bar area for more relaxed dining – but despite the food being of an excellent standard, it’s not a formal place in the slightest.
Eric and Maree have been the proprietors for many years, and chef Eric produces a consistently delicious menu which blends his traditional French cooking with more typical British pub fayre. Think duck confit, beouf bourginon meets steaks and fish and chips.
Desserts with a twist are fresh out of their on-site bakery and patisserie, you can eye them up on the way in so that you know what you’re leaving room for. If you can’t squeeze in an individual lemon tart, you can buy one boxed up to go, and don’t have to be a pub guest to pick up an artisanal loaf for the morning.
They’re also child friendly, have a lovely beer garden, and they make the best roasts around – you need to go, immediately!
The Game Cock does have accommodation, but as keen campers (and new caravanners in our fabulous caravan, Dave!), we’ve always stayed at one of the two Austwick campsites on our many visits. Both just a short walk and a hop, skip and a jump over the A65 (one to consider if you’re making an evening of it in the pub), the two campsites both have plenty to offer.
As we’re lucky enough to be about 40 minutes away from Austwick, this is our perfect weekend bolthole that doesn’t involve having to get a Friday off work – and you can still be back in time on a Sunday to get your school uniforms ready for Monday. It’s the ideal mini-break location.
The Dalesbridge Campsite
is located on the site of the former Settle rural isolation hospital, which opened in the early 1900s as an isolation hospital for contagious illnesses. Well placed information boards are dotted around the site explaining what each of the buildings former uses were - please don’t be put off by the fact that the shop used to be the mortuary!
Throughout the 20th century the hospital changed purpose, becoming a community hospital before closing finally in 1990. Shortly afterwards the site became the first iteration of what it is today; a base for campers, outdoor enthusiasts, families and Three Peakers, and has been consistently developed over the years.
The site is now home to a bar and outdoor pizza oven, a small shop which sells pastries and hot drinks as well as camp essentials, a large conference facility, self-catering block, pods, walkers cabins and two fields for caravans, motorhomes and tents so you can take your pick of which level of accommodation you need.
Orcaber Farm Camping
is just down the lane, and is an equally lovely site, but set up slightly differently in that tents and vans are in separate areas and there’s no bar, so attracts a slightly quieter crowd. This site has top notch facilities and also a pre-bookable takeout service available on weekend evenings if you don’t fancy cooking. This site also has a lovely dog walking area, albeit it over the road, which backs onto a lovely river walk into neighbouring Clapham.
Both sites have stunning views, particularly for sunsets, so if you’re a camper, one of these sites will definitely fulfil your needs.
If you’re a traveller that likes an active break, Austwick is a fantastic base for all that the Dales has to offer. The start of the famous Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge is just a few miles away in nearby Horton in Ribblesdale. We’ve met many a camper using Dalesbridge as their base when tackling this epic 26 mile day-hike.
The classic route takes you up Pen-y-Ghent, heads alongside the stunning Ribbleshead Viaduct and up Whernside, completing the trio with Ingleborough and a deceptively long, slow walk back into Horton to get your Three Peaks card stamped at the Pen-y-Ghent café.
Traditionally you’re meant to complete the full route in under 12 hours – I limped into the village with 11 hours 57 minutes on the clock – but just getting around safely is challenge completed in my eyes. If a 12-hour hike isn’t your idea of fun, neighbouring Clapham and Ingleton are pretty villages which have beautiful, gentler walking routes which still highlight the best of the Dales.
Clapham is also home to the famous Ingleborough Cave Walk a 1km round trip through one of the country’s most well-known ‘show caves’, 500m beneath the peak which shares its name.
It’s well worth a visit – but make sure you pack a jumper, it’s nippy down there!
A middle ground between the two walks is the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, a 4.5 trail round a series of beautiful waterfalls, and voted one of Britain’s top 100 walks in a recent ITV poll. There is a fee to take part in the trail to accommodate the upkeep of the site, but it’s great value for money for a day out for a family if you take advantage of the many picnic areas. They recommend between 2.5-4 hours to complete the trail, depending on your pace, and the majority of the trail is not suitable for pushchairs so it’s one to bear in mind.
If you like to teashop hop on your breaks, Ingleton is also a great place to enjoy a scone and a cuppa before heading home.
You don’t have to stray far from Austwick to experience the very best of this beautiful part of the world. And should you wish, you don’t have to move at all if all you want is to enjoy the view whilst partaking in some outstanding Yorkshire hospitality.
Whichever way you choose to enjoy Austwick – enjoy it you will, let us know how you find it!
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