01/09/2026
If you’re going to call one of Yorkshire’s most dramatic roads “Buttertubs”, you’d better have a decent story behind it.
High between Wensleydale and Swaledale, the road twists across the moors beside a series of deep limestone potholes. The old tale is that farmers heading to market in Hawes lowered their butter into them to keep it cool - whether they actually did or not, the name stuck.
And if this stretch looks vaguely familiar, the Tour de France came charging over here in 2014, with Jens Voigt first across the summit. Quite a transformation for a lonely Dales road supposedly named after somewhere to stash your dairy products.
Just another bit of the real North I’ll happily keep pointing a camera at.
