Skipton

Skipton works well as a hotel base precisely because it's a real town rather than a tourist village — there's a genuine choice of pubs, cafes and independent shops on the doorstep, plus a railway station for anyone wanting to explore Leeds or the Dales without a car. The town centre itself has options ranging from the canal-side Skipton Hotel, a 96-room property built around the Leeds & Liverpool Canal basin, down to smaller family-run B&Bs on and around the High Street, most within a five-minute walk of the castle. This is the right choice for anyone prioritising evenings out, market mornings, or arriving by train.

Just outside the centre, villages like Embsay, Carleton and Gargrave offer a quieter, more rural stay with easier parking, usually at similar prices to the town itself, and are still only a short drive or in some cases a walk from Skipton's shops and restaurants. These suit visitors planning to spend most of their days out walking or driving around the wider Dales rather than based in the town itself.

For something more special, the Devonshire Arms Country House Hotel and Spa at Bolton Abbey, around 20 minutes away, is the standout upscale option in the area, set in parkland with its own spa, and makes a good base for anyone splitting time between Skipton and the Bolton Abbey estate. Across all these options, expect town-centre doubles from roughly £80–£120 outside peak periods, rising at weekends and during events like the Skipton Waterways Festival, Sheep Day or the December Dickensian Skipton weekend, when demand for the town's relatively limited hotel stock climbs fast — booking a few weeks ahead is sensible for those dates, though a week's notice is usually fine the rest of the year.

Skipton rewards a couple of days on foot, split between the town itself and the moorland and dale villages within easy reach.

• Skipton Castle — Nearly fully roofed and floored, this is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Britain, founded around 1090 by the Normans and rebuilt by the Clifford family. The Conduit Court and its ancient yew tree, planted in 1659, are a highlight of the self-guided tour.
• Leeds & Liverpool Canal and the Springs Branch — The canal towpath runs directly beneath the castle walls; Pennine Cruisers and Skipton Boat Trips both run short cruises and day-hire narrowboats from the town centre wharf, past working boatyards and out towards Gargrave.
• Skipton Market — Stalls have traded on the wide High Street since a 1204 royal charter, and the market still runs Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, selling local produce, textiles and crafts alongside the covered High Corn Mill precinct.
• Craven Museum, Skipton Town Hall — Housed in the 1862 Town Hall, this free museum holds around 60,000 objects covering the archaeology and social history of the wider Craven district, from Dales farming to Ice Age finds.
• Skipton Woods — A gentle, well-signed woodland walk along Eller Beck just beyond the castle, giving quick access to green space without leaving the town centre.
• Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway — A heritage line running steam and diesel services from Embsay, just outside Skipton, out towards Bolton Abbey along a scenic stretch of the old Skipton-to-Ilkley branch.
• Bolton Abbey estate — The ruined 12th-century priory beside the River Wharfe, with stepping stones, riverside walks and the Strid Wood gorge, sits around 20 minutes' drive or a short train hop from Skipton.
• Malham Cove and Malhamdale — The limestone amphitheatre at Malham Cove and the Malham Tarn area are around a 25-minute drive from Skipton and among the most photographed landscapes in the Dales.
• Grassington — A honey-stone Dales village with its own cobbled square, independent shops and access to Upper Wharfedale walking routes, about 20 minutes north of Skipton.

Skipton's food scene runs on genuinely local produce rather than tourist-menu staples, reflecting its role as a working market town. Elsworth Kitchen, close to the canal basin, focuses on Yorkshire ingredients in a relaxed modern setting, while Alexander's, at the top of the High Street, covers everything from morning coffee to evening dining in a bar-kitchen format. Le Caveau, a long-standing basement restaurant just off the High Street, is the town's best-known option for a special-occasion dinner, built around French-leaning cooking.

For pubs, the Tempest Arms on the edge of town is a 17th-century coaching inn doing classic beer-battered fish and chips and Sunday roasts, and the Royal Shepherd Inn near the canal is a reliable, unfussy option for straightforward pub food. Two Sisters, on Mill Bridge by the canal, is popular for daytime eating and brunch. Skipton's market itself, running Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday on the High Street, is worth timing a visit around for local produce stalls, and the covered High Corn Mill nearby adds further independent food traders. The town's brewing heritage also shows up in several traditional pubs serving cask ales from Yorkshire breweries within a short walk of the castle gates.

Camping around Skipton means trading sea views for drystone walls, river valleys and open fell, and the terrain shapes what a trip here looks like more than in most parts of the country. Sites cluster in two bands: small, sheltered spots close to the town itself, such as those near Cononley just a few miles out, ideal for a base with easy access to the castle and market; and more remote, scenic pitches further into the Dales around Grassington, Kettlewell and Wharfedale, where campsites often back directly onto rivers or sit within walking distance of well-known routes like the Dales Way. Ground tends to be a mix of flat riverside meadow and gently sloping farmland, generally firm enough for family tents through summer but capable of turning soft after prolonged rain, since much of the Dales sits on porous limestone that drains fast but floods fast too when becks rise.

Weather in the Dales is more changeable than lowland England — expect a genuine four seasons in a day even in midsummer, with temperatures dropping noticeably once the sun goes and wind picking up on higher, more exposed sites. Waterproof kit and a decent sleeping bag rating are worth taking seriously even for a June trip. The most reliable camping season runs from late April through September, when campsites are fully open, daylight is long enough for evening walks, and the ground has usually dried out from winter and spring rain. July and August are busiest, particularly at sites near well-known villages like Grassington and Kettlewell, so early booking matters for peak weekends and school holidays.

Wild camping — pitching without the landowner's permission — is illegal in England, including across the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and rangers and farmers do enforce this, particularly on popular fells and near honeypot spots like Malham. Anyone wanting a genuinely remote experience should look at the small number of farm sites that offer basic, low-facility pitches with the landowner's consent rather than pitching wild; several Dales farms run exactly this kind of low-key touring pitch. Glamping has grown substantially in the area, with pods, shepherd's huts and yurts available at sites such as Littondale Country & Leisure Park near Grassington, giving a fixed-roof alternative for anyone put off by the unpredictable Dales weather while keeping the same rural, fell-edge setting that draws people to camp here in the first place.