Buckden

Buckden sits at the very top of Wharfedale, the point where the broad green dale narrows and the road finally gives up, turning to a rough track over into Langstrothdale. It is a compact cluster of 18th and 19th-century limestone cottages, a shop, a car park and a pub, gathered on a shelf above the River Wharfe with Buckden Pike rising steeply behind at 702 metres. For a village of fewer than 200 people, it punches well above its weight as a destination, largely because it marks the last proper outpost of civilisation before the dale opens into the wilder, quieter country beyond.

The parish stretches far past the village itself, taking in the scattered hamlets of Cray, Hubberholme, Yockenthwaite, Raisgill, Deepdale, Beckermonds and Oughtershaw, each a handful of farms and houses tucked along the infant Wharfe. This is limestone country at its purest: dry-stone walls climbing impossibly steep pastures, field barns dotted every few hundred yards, and the kind of quiet that makes Upper Wharfedale feel like a different county to the busier lower dale around Grassington and Bolton Abbey. It is within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and the landscape shows it, with access land rolling up onto the tops on almost every side.

Top things to do in Buckden

Buckden rewards walkers more than any other type of visitor, but there is plenty to see even on a short stop.

• Buckden Pike — The distinctive hill directly above the village, with a summit cross and a poignant memorial to the crew of a Polish Wellington bomber that crashed here in 1942; the climb is steep but the views back down Wharfedale are among the best in the Dales.
• Buckden to Hubberholme via Cray — A classic circular walk taking in the Cray Gill waterfalls, the hamlet of Cray with its old drovers' inn, and Hubberholme, one of the smallest and most photographed villages in the National Park.
• St Michael and All Angels, Hubberholme — A part-Norman church with a rare 16th-century rood loft, and the resting place of the writer J.B. Priestley, who called Hubberholme one of the most pleasant places in the world.
• The Dales Way — Buckden is one of the principal overnight stops on this 84-mile long-distance path from Ilkley to Bowness-on-Windermere, and the village fills up with walkers' rucksacks most summer evenings.
• Yockenthwaite stone circle and the Buckden to Yockenthwaite circular — A gentler riverside walk upstream along the Wharfe, passing limestone scars and a small Bronze Age stone circle near Yockenthwaite.
• Langstrothdale — The remote continuation of Wharfedale beyond Buckden, a single-track road threading past Beckermonds and Oughtershaw towards the source of the river high on the fell.
• Buckden Rake — A steep old drove road climbing out of the village towards Cray, offering a shortcut onto the higher ground and fine views over the head of the dale.

Getting to Buckden

Buckden lies on the B6160, roughly 6 miles north of Kettlewell and around 16 miles north of Skipton, the nearest town with a mainline railway station on the Leeds to Morecambe line. From Skipton the drive follows the B6265 and B6160 up through Grassington and Kettlewell, a scenic but narrow route that can be slow behind farm traffic or in poor weather. There is a small National Park Authority car park in the village itself. Public transport is limited to seasonal and infrequent bus services along Wharfedale, so most visitors arrive by car; walkers on the Dales Way, of course, arrive on foot from Kettlewell or Hubberholme.

Best time to visit Buckden

Late spring through early autumn is the most reliable window, with May and June bringing wildflower meadows into bloom across the valley and long daylight hours for tackling Buckden Pike or the walk to Hubberholme. July and August are busiest, particularly with Dales Way walkers and day-trippers from the West Yorkshire towns. Autumn brings quieter roads and the fells turning bracken-gold, though the high ground can be cold and exposed well before winter proper arrives. Winter in Upper Wharfedale is atmospheric but can be genuinely wild, with the B6160 occasionally affected by snow, so it suits those wanting a remote, low-key break rather than an easy one.

Where to stay in Buckden

Accommodation in the village itself is modest but characterful, centred on the Buck Inn, a Georgian coaching inn with en-suite rooms right in the middle of the village, and a handful of self-catering cottages and farmhouses converted from the old barns and stone houses that make up the settlement. Buckden Camping, a working farm campsite in the village, adds tent pitches, a certified caravan site and glamping pods for those who want to be right on the Dales Way. Beyond the village, Kettlewell and Grassington a short drive south offer a wider choice of guesthouses, pubs with rooms and holiday cottages if Buckden itself is full, which it often is in peak walking season.

Food and drink in Buckden

The Buck Inn is the obvious focus, a traditional Dales pub serving hearty food and local ales to walkers straight off the fell, with a beer garden looking up towards Buckden Pike. The village shop and adjoining café offer breakfasts, packed lunches and basic supplies, useful given how little else is available further up the dale. A short drive or a good walk away, the George Inn at Hubberholme is a destination in its own right, a flagstone-floored free house once favoured by J.B. Priestley, serving well-kept beer and simple pub food in one of the most atmospheric settings in the National Park.