Located just eight miles north of Skipton, Linton in Craven is a picture postcard village built around a delightful green.
At the head of the green stands the Fountaine Hospital, a Grade II listed Palladian style almhouse that was built by Richard Fountaine to provide shelter to the village’s poor in 1721. It is still used today as a home for the elderly.
The green is good spot for a picnic and has a pair of footpaths that lead to two stone bridges which run over the Linton Beck. During the warmer months you can get to the other side of the beck by going straight through it as it’s quite shallow so there is no reason not to roll your trousers up and go for a paddle.
Downstream is Linton Falls which has an upper and lower waterfall as well as a walkers bridge where you can watch the flow pass beneath your feet. When the waters are low you can also cross the beck near the falls using an ancient course of stepping stones that lead to the village church.
Nearby Cracoe is a place you may want to visit if you like movies as it is the home of the real life Calendar Girls. In 1998, a group of ladies from Cracoe and neighbouring Rylstone earned national notoriety after they made a nude calendar in aid of leukaemia research. Five years later their story gained even more fame as it was turned into a hit film starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters. It has also adapted into a stage musical.
Just a few miles away (or up’t road as we’d say in Yorkshire) is the market town of Grassington. There you will find the local Yorkshire Dales National Park information centre as well as a number of shops and the Folk Museum, which is housed in two former mining cottages and gives visitors an insight into rural life.
Grassington is a great place to visit near Christmas as it hosts a Dickensian Festival where people dress up as characters from Charles Dickens’ classic tale ‘A Christmas Carol’.
Also not far away from Linton is Bolton Abbey, a 12th century monastery that fell into ruins following the English Reformation of 1540. Around the priory are a number of beautiful walking spots, including one that has been made a ‘Site of Specific Scientific Interest’ because it passes by more than 60 different plant variations and is home to around 40 species of birds.