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Yorkshire Dales Uncovered, Middleham (2026)

21/10/2026

STAINFORTH SALMON RUN

ONE OF THE YORKSHIRE DALES’ GREATEST WILDLIFE SPECTACLES IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.

Every autumn, Atlantic salmon make an extraordinary journey back from the sea and up the River Ribble towards the waters where they were born.

And near Settle, there’s a rather substantial obstacle in their way.

Stainforth Force.

Here, the salmon can be seen launching themselves from the water, attempting to clear the limestone falls as they continue upstream towards their spawning grounds.

And right now is one of the best times to see it.

The Ribble Rivers Trust says October and November are optimum months, particularly following heavy rainfall when higher river levels help the fish continue their journey upstream.

There’s some particularly encouraging news this year too. Surveys across the Ribble catchment in 2026 have recorded promising numbers of young Atlantic salmon, including more than 100 juveniles at one survey site in just a few minutes.

If you’re thinking of visiting Stainforth, patience is essential — seeing a salmon isn’t guaranteed — and take particular care around the water and slippery rocks.

But catch it on the right day, after the rain…

and you might witness one of the most remarkable sights of a Yorkshire Dales autumn.

Has anyone spotted them at Stainforth yet this year?

If you’ve captured a photograph or video of the 2026 salmon run, we’d love to see your genuine Dales footage in the comments.

Yorkshire Dales Uncovered — the people, places, wildlife and stories of the Dales.

20/10/2026

☄️ PIECES OF HALLEY’S COMET ARE ABOUT TO BURN ACROSS THE SKY ABOVE THE YORKSHIRE DALES.

Look up tomorrow night.

The Orionid meteor shower reaches its peak overnight Wednesday 21 into Thursday 22 October — and the shooting stars have travelled quite a journey to get here.

The Orionids are created by tiny pieces of debris left behind by Halley’s Comet. Each year, Earth passes through that trail and the particles hit our atmosphere at tremendous speed, burning up as the bright streaks we see across the night sky.

And the Yorkshire Dales is a pretty special place to watch.

The National Park is an International Dark Sky Reserve, with some of the darkest skies in the country and vast areas away from artificial light.

You don’t need a telescope. Find somewhere genuinely dark, give your eyes time to adjust and keep watching as much of the sky as possible.

There is, of course, one slight problem…

Yorkshire weather.

Cloud could spoil the party, so sightings will depend heavily on getting a clear window.

But if the clouds do part, it might be worth looking up.

Anyone planning a late night in the Dales?

And if you manage to photograph an Orionid over the Yorkshire Dales, send it to Yorkshire Dales Uncovered — we’d love to share the best genuine shots.

📸 Visual image: Jonny Gios / Unsplash, via Pitchup. Image used for illustration and does not depict the 2026 Orionid meteor shower.

20/10/2026

WHEN THE SHEPHERD AND HIS DOG WERE A TEAM…

Long before sheepdogs became stars of television competitions, this was simply part of working life in the Yorkshire Dales.

This remarkable old newspaper photograph captures shepherds and their dogs at the Moorcock Sheep Dog Trials, high in the country around Garsdale Head.

Flat caps. Walking sticks. Collies at their feet.

And generations of knowledge about sheep, dogs and these hills that couldn’t be learned from a book.

The surviving newspaper caption gives us one name:

Mr Jim Whalley of Widdale — winner of the local section.

The Moorcock area has been part of the farming life of Upper Wensleydale for generations, and events like these weren’t simply entertainment.

A good sheepdog was an essential working partner.

On steep, exposed Dales ground, one shepherd and a well-trained collie could manage livestock across distances and terrain that would otherwise require several people.

And perhaps that’s what makes photographs like this so important.

These aren’t actors recreating the Yorkshire Dales of the past.

These were the people actually living it.

Now we’d love YDU followers to help us put names to the faces.

Do you recognise any of these shepherds — or remember the Moorcock Sheep Dog Trials?

And does anyone from Widdale, Garsdale or Upper Wensleydale remember Jim Whalley or his family?

Sometimes the best history isn’t sitting in an archive.

It’s sitting in somebody’s memory.

📍 Moorcock Sheep Dog Trials, Garsdale Head / Upper Wensleydale

We haven’t yet established the exact date of this newspaper photograph. If you know the newspaper, year, any of the people pictured or have memories of the trials, we’d love to hear from you.

Image: historic newspaper cutting supplied to Yorkshire Dales Uncovered. Copyright remains with the respective rights holder.

20/10/2026

SHE REMEMBERED WATERLOO, WORKED THE HAYFIELDS AT 80… AND LIVED TO 106.

Meet Betty Webster — one of the Yorkshire Dales’ most remarkable characters from days gone by.

Born at Thwaite in Swaledale on 25 February 1790, Betty’s life stretched from the reign of George III deep into the Victorian age.

She remembered the celebrations following the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 — and could even recall three men from Bainbridge who had fought there.

Widowed relatively young with eight children, Betty eventually spent around 40 years living in the almshouses near Askrigg. And she wasn’t exactly taking things easy.

At 80, she was reportedly still capable of working in the hayfield.

At 100, she was still doing her own housework, cooking and polishing her pans.

And then came royal recognition.

On reaching her 100th birthday in 1890, congratulations were sent on behalf of Queen Victoria from Windsor Castle, wishing that Betty might enjoy further birthdays in good health.

There’s another wonderfully Victorian detail to her story.

Betty had reportedly used to***co for more than 50 years, with people at the time even speculating that it had somehow contributed to her longevity.

We should probably add: that particular piece of 1890s health advice hasn’t aged quite as well as Betty did.

By then Betty had become something of a celebrity. News of the extraordinary old Yorkshirewoman travelled far beyond the Dales, with reports about her appearing in newspapers as far away as Australia.

During each of her final six birthdays, Leyburn photographer J. B. Smithson travelled to photograph her.

The remarkable portrait you’re looking at was taken in 1896, during Betty’s 107th year.

A copy of that final portrait was even accepted by Queen Victoria.

Betty died peacefully on 14 June 1896, aged 106 years and 3½ months, and was laid to rest in Askrigg churchyard.

More than 130 years later, her photograph still looks back at us.

A woman born in Georgian Yorkshire who remembered Waterloo, raised eight children, worked the Dales hayfields, lived through the Industrial Revolution and survived long enough to receive congratulations from Queen Victoria.

BETTY WEBSTER — 1790–1896

Another extraordinary life from The People Who Made the Dales.

Does anybody in Thwaite, Askrigg or Wensleydale have family stories, photographs or memories passed down about Betty?

We’d love to hear them.

Yorkshire Dales Uncovered

Historic photograph: J. B. Smithson, Photographer, Leyburn. Please contact Yorkshire Dales Uncovered regarding any additional archive credit or rights information.

19/10/2026

FROM HELEN’S FARM… TO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD 🌍

If you watch All Creatures Great All Creatures great & Small Fan. and Small, you might recognise the place where Lianne Hird calls home.

Because this isn’t a film set.

It’s Yockenthwaite Farm Yockenthwaite Farm , tucked away in beautiful Langstrothdale — home to the Hird family since 1842 and transformed on screen into Heston Grange, the Alderson family farm and home of Helen.

But when the cameras stop rolling, this is still very much a real working Yorkshire Dales family home and farm.

And there’s another great little story happening behind those famous stone walls.

Meet Lianne — the person behind Hirdy’s Horizons

They’re independent travel agents.

Which means that from one of the most recognisable little corners of the Yorkshire Dales, they’re busy helping people plan adventures all over the world.

And we absolutely love the irony of that.

Thousands of people watch All Creatures Great and Small and think:

“I’d love to go there.”

Meanwhile, inside Helen’s famous Dales home is Lianne helping people decide where they’d love to go next.

From Yorkshire to the Mediterranean.

From the Dales to Disney.

From Langstrothdale to long-haul.

It’s also another brilliant example of something we want to champion much more on Yorkshire Dales Uncovered:

The real people and businesses behind the beautiful photographs.

Families who farm here.

People creating businesses here.

People diversifying, adapting and finding ways to earn a living while keeping these extraordinary communities alive.

The Hird family have done exactly that.

Their farmhouse granola grew from something originally made for B&B guests into Yockenthwaite Farm Granola.

Their working farm became known to millions through one of Britain’s best-loved television programmes.

And now Lianne is running Hirdys Horizons from this remarkable corner of the Dales.

So today we’re giving a proper YDU shout-out to a local independent business.

HIRDYS HORIZONS ✈️
Hirdy’s Horizons #
If you’re thinking about your next holiday, instead of spending hours disappearing down an internet rabbit hole, have a chat with Lianne.

Tell her what you’re looking for and let them help find your next horizon.

Follow Hirdys Horizons on Facebook⁠

And there can’t be many travel businesses that can say:

“Your holiday was planned from Helen’s farm in All Creatures Great and Small.”

Now we’ve got one question…

If Hirdys Horizons could send you ANYWHERE in the world tomorrow — where are you going?

Yorkshire Dales Uncovered

Supporting the people, families and independent businesses that keep the Yorkshire Dales thriving.

Photo: Lianne . Business information supplied to Yorkshire Dales Uncovered. Please contact the page regarding any credit or rights concerns.

Yorkshire Dales Uncovered fans

19/10/2026

WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN, THE YORKSHIRE DALES DOESN’T DISAPPEAR…

A completely different Dales appears.

No streetlights on every corner.
No city glow filling the horizon.

Just dark valleys, ancient stone walls, lonely barns and — when the clouds finally behave — a sky absolutely packed with stars.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park is part of an internationally recognised Dark Sky Reserve, making this one of Britain’s special places for experiencing genuinely dark night skies.

And the timing couldn’t be better.

The Yorkshire Dales Dark Skies Fringe Festival begins this Friday, 23 October, with events running into November — from stargazing and astronomy to night walks and experiences celebrating what happens here after sunset.
Dark Skies Festival

But perhaps the best experience costs absolutely nothing.

Find somewhere dark.
Turn the lights off.
Put the phone away for five minutes.

And look up.

It’s easy to spend our lives admiring what’s beneath our feet in the Yorkshire Dales.

Sometimes we forget about the extraordinary landscape above our heads.

THE DALES AFTER DARK.

Have you ever properly seen the stars from the Yorkshire Dales — and where’s the best place you’ve found to watch them?

Yorkshire Dales Uncovered

Photo credit:— please support and credit the original photographer. If you own material featured by Yorkshire Dales Uncovered and have any credit or rights concerns, please contact the page directly.

Yorkshire Dales Uncovered

18/10/2026

7.8 MILLION VIEWS. NEARLY 50,000 FOLLOWERS. AND THE YORKSHIRE DALES IS GETTING NOTICED.

We genuinely had to look at those numbers twice.

In the last 90 days, Yorkshire Dales Uncovered has reached:

7.8 MILLION views
340,000 engagements
8,000% growth in views
10,000% growth in engagement

And we’re now racing towards an incredible 50,000 followers.

But here’s what matters most:

Those numbers belong to the Yorkshire Dales.

To the farmers, publicans, shopkeepers, craftspeople and characters.

To the villages, pubs, cafés, independent businesses and family-run companies.

To the wildlife, landscapes, traditions, history, humour and occasionally downright bonkers stories that make this place unlike anywhere else.

And now things are moving very quickly.

We’ve already been featured on national television, and in the last week alone Yorkshire Dales Uncovered has been approached by four mainstream TV and media outlets about opportunities over the coming weeks.

What started with a passion for telling great Dales stories is becoming something much bigger.

SO NOW WE WANT TO TAKE THE DALES WITH US.

If you run a Yorkshire Dales pub, hotel, B&B, holiday cottage, farm stay, restaurant, café, attraction, independent shop, food business, brewery, event, visitor experience or local business — this is your invitation to get in touch.

We’re opening a limited number of opportunities for businesses to work with Yorkshire Dales Uncovered through:

Original Reels • Photography • Features • Stories • Creative campaigns

But we’re not interested in filling the page with adverts.

We want to tell stories people actually stop for.

The family behind the business.
The pub that’s survived generations.
The product made in a Dales workshop.
The farmer doing something remarkable.
The hidden place people should know about.

Because when local businesses thrive, the Dales thrives with them.

And we’re looking for stories too.

Know an unforgettable farmer, publican, shopkeeper, craftsman, historian or proper Dales character?

Have an old photograph nobody has seen for years?

Know a piece of Yorkshire Dales history that deserves uncovering?

Send it to us.

Our ambition is simple:

To build one of the biggest shop windows the Yorkshire Dales has ever had.

For its people. Places. Stories. Communities. And businesses.

And finally — thank you.

To every single person who follows us, comments, shares our stories, sends photographs, corrects us when we get something wrong, recommends the page or simply enjoys seeing the Dales appear on their screen…

YOU are building this with us.

Nearly 50,000 strong.
7.8 million views.
National attention arriving.

And somehow…

IT FEELS LIKE WE’RE ONLY JUST GETTING STARTED.

Business collaborations • Story submissions • Media enquiries
📩 Message Yorkshire Dales Uncovered directly.

The Dales has millions of stories.
We’re going to uncover them.

Yorkshire Dales Uncovered

18/10/2026

THIS ISN’T A FILM SET. THIS IS YORKSHIRE.

Thirty seconds of the Yorkshire Dales that explain why millions of us never quite get enough of this place.

Wild landscapes. Working farms. Dry-stone walls. Waterfalls. Sheep in the road. Country pubs. Ancient villages. And views that stop you in your tracks.

From Wensleydale and Swaledale to Wharfedale, Ribblesdale and beyond — this isn’t just somewhere to visit.

It’s the Yorkshire Dales. And for some of us, it feels like home.

Which part of the Dales would you show someone who had never been before?

Yorkshire Dales Uncovered

Selected footage used for editorial/promotional storytelling. Rights remain with the respective copyright owners; please contact Yorkshire Dales Uncovered regarding credit or rights concerns.
Yorkshire Dales Uncovered

18/10/2026

THEY CALLED HIM “OWD MICK THE BULL WALLOPER”… AND HE COULD REPORTEDLY DRINK 12 PINTS WHILE THE CLOCK STRUCK 12.

Long before social media created local celebrities, the Yorkshire Dales had characters who became legends simply by being themselves.

And Owd Mick was certainly one of them.

He was a cattle drover — or, in the wonderfully blunt language of the time, a “bull walloper”.

Drovers belonged to a very different rural world.

Before livestock trailers and modern transport, cattle had to be physically moved between farms, markets and railway stations. Men like Mick worked amongst the animals, controlling and driving them through the countryside and into market towns.

But it wasn’t only Mick’s occupation that people remembered.

According to accounts preserved by celebrated Dales writer Bill Mitchell, Mick had suffered an injury to his throat during the war.

The result was apparently an extraordinary party trick.

Mick could reportedly drink 12 pints of bitter during the 12 strokes of the clock at noon.

And once word got around, visitors wanted to see whether the story was actually true.

Apparently Mick wasn’t complaining.

People would buy the b**r simply to watch him attempt it — providing him with what Mitchell later described as a seemingly endless supply of free ale.

There was, however, one slight problem.

The young reporter sent to meet him was Bill Mitchell.

Mitchell would become one of the great chroniclers of Yorkshire Dales life, eventually editing Dalesman for two decades and writing more than 200 books.

He was also a lifelong Methodist.

So sending him to investigate a man famous for drinking twelve pints at lunchtime was perhaps not the most natural pairing Yorkshire journalism ever produced.

Mitchell reportedly found his expenses disappearing rather rapidly.

And Mick clearly made an impression.

The story “Old Mick – the bull walloper” became Mitchell’s first article for Dalesman, originally appearing in October 1949. It was considered memorable enough to be republished decades later.

Today, cattle no longer come through Dales market towns in quite the same way.

The drovers have largely disappeared.

And characters like Owd Mick belong to another Yorkshire.

But their stories don’t have to disappear with them.

THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THE DALES

We’re starting to uncover the farmers, drovers, coalmen, shopkeepers, publicans, butchers, postmen, craftsmen and wonderful village characters whose stories deserve to be remembered.

And we need your help.

Who was the unforgettable character in your Dales village?

Give us their name, village and what they were famous for in the comments.

There could be some extraordinary stories waiting to be rediscovered.

Historical accounts can contain elements of local folklore; where details are reported rather than independently documented, we’ve described them as such. Photo/material used for editorial purposes; please contact Yorkshire Dales Uncovered regarding appropriate credit or rights concerns.
Yorkshire Dales Uncovered

Yorkshire Dales Uncovered

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