Hawes

Introducing Hawes

Hawes – from the Saxon word haus (mountain pass) – is busy, not especially pretty but very useful: right at the heart of Wensleydale, it’s the best base for exploring the northern Yorkshire Dales. The main street and the narrow lanes off it are lined with old-style shops, some small supermarkets, banks with ATMs, outdoor shops, half a dozen pubs, even more cafés, a couple of smart restaurants, some basic fish-and-chip takeaways, endless craft and pottery studios, a laundrette and a post office…pretty much everything you’ll need.

There’s also the Wensleydale Creamery Visitor Centre (667664; www.wensleydale.co.uk; admission £2.50; 9.30am-5pm Mon-Sat, 10am-4.30pm Sun), devoted to the production of Wallace and Gromit’s favourite powdery-white cheese, but watching guys shovel tons of cheese around is only marginally interesting. You can taste it in the museum and then buy it in the shop, which is free to enter. There are daily tours of the creamery every day at 10am, which also include a video called ‘From Cow to Customer’.

The tourist office (667450; hawes@ytbtic.co.uk; 10am-5pm) shares the Old Station building with the Dales Countryside Museum (adult/child £3/free), a beautifully presented social history of the area. There’s still an old train in the yard too.

About 1.5 miles north of town is Hawes’ other attraction, Hardraw Force, the highest above-ground waterfall in the country. For most of the year it’s little more than a trickle on the rocks and not really worth the £1 ‘toll’ you pay at the Green Dragon pub to walk up to it.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009