Before I introduce you to this month’s Yorkshire delight, I would remind you that the Saltburn Food Festival takes place on Sunday 28 July starting at 10am until 6pm. Saltburn is a small town and the difficulty of finding a car parking place alone should persuade you to go by train to the station at the heart of the action, with a new service hourly by TransPennine from Yarm, as well as the half-hourly Northern service from Darlington. I have been earlier this season but the highly atmospheric sea fret stopped me from getting decent photographs.
So I have been also 18 miles north west of Leeds to Ilkley, another town now at the end of the line, with a half-hourly electrified train service. Several pubs around the railway station offer accommodation but the best value was at the Craiglands, a former hydropathic resort on the very edge of Ilkley Moor which involved a haul with my overnight bag up Cowpasture Road. It’s the only spa site which is still operating as a hotel. I checked in at the first opportunity at 1500 and took a hotel towel with my trunks down to the Lido, a marvellous 1930s creation where the water temperature was only 16 O C. The indoor pool was in use for lessons so I remained in the open air and after a brief plodge in the foot-deep shallow end headed instead to the equally marvellous 1930s café. A lovely place for a summer’s day out, but not quite warm enough on 7th June.
Duly changed, I explored the riverside parks on both sides of the river and found the old bridge at the start/finish point of the Dales Way, an 82-mile walk to Bowness on Windermere, and a good pint of Timothy Taylor at the handily located Riverside Inn. Heading back east, I found the town has a thriving arts scene and a great deal of entertainment, and I enjoyed a live broadcast from the National Theatre of the play Nye, about Aneurin Bevan (father of the National Health Service), broadcasting to the entirely full sofas of the Ilkley Cinema, apparently the 100th cinema release of National Theatre Live.
The following morning after breakfast I was up on the Moor (baht ‘at, without a hat) to find the White Wells spa which does not have its own website, nor leaflet, only a telephone number and a sign at the entrance to the Moor which states the Spa is open when the flag is flying. It was, but the water temperature was only 5 O C, making yesterday’s Lido experience seem positively Mediterranean. The gentleman there made me a cup of coffee and I saw the spa railings around a small pool with floor covered with small coins. I felt the attraction could surely be developed better as the only original spa still in use. He told me my hotel had been built in 1859, but no longer offers spa treatments. I walked across the Moor past a tarn and down into the hotel grounds. Spa treatments in Ilkley mostly revolved around cold water treatments of pure water, not imbibing mineral salts.
Not wanting to go back again for my bag, I wheeled it to the Toy Museum (20 min max), up the enchanting Mill Ghyll at the top of Brook Street, round past Bettys (with its signature accompanying queue), had a free visit to the interesting Manor House built on the site of the Roman fort Olicana. Local people are therefore Olicanians. An enjoyable lunch at the Brooks’ Sri Lankan restaurant had me ready for the 1440 train to Leeds and home.
