Langcliffe Caravan Park

Those who want to ditch the car for the duration and stay local will find plenty of activities in and around Settle or within a mere mile of Langcliffe Caravan Park. Start off at Settle first to browse the Tuesday market and take a sup in The Naked Man – said to be the oldest café in the country – then stick your head round the door of The Gallery on the Green, a teeny art gallery in a former phone kiosk and not surprisingly said to be the smallest in the world. A bigger/more normal-sized gallery is at Gavagan Arts at Linton Court Gallery, which holds temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. Outdoor enthusiasts have a full 24 climbing routes to be scaled on Settle’s Castleberg Crag which overlooks the town, and if tastes tend towards the subterranean instead, the nearest of the Yorkshire Dales’s many potholing and caving areas can be delved into at nearby Schoolboy Cave and Giggleswick Scar. Also within a mile, Settle swimming pool is a splashingly good option for rainy days not spent underground, or take a tee on the nine-hole course at gorgeously scenic Settle Golf Club, one of a dozen or so courses within 20 miles or so of Langcliffe. Trainspotter or not, make room for at least a day on the Settle to Carlisle Railway, running a full 73 miles from here to there via some of the most remote and lovely spots of the Dales and the North Pennines, small Yorkshire communities and its visitor centre at Ribblehead (look out here for the Ribblehead Viaduct). Settle’s railway station also runs several trains daily to Leeds from Mondays to Saturdays. Further afield, bigger towns and their surrounds are easily reachable and have enough to do for a series of day trips: try Skipton for Skipton Castle (and boating on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal); Cumbria’s Kirkby Lonsdale for scuba diving under Devil’s Bridge (and motorbike meets there every Sunday); and Kendal for a slab of mint cake and a look at Lake District history in the Museum of Lakeland Life. You’ll also be within day trip access of Bolton, Blackburn and Blackpool to the south and south-west, or Manchester about 50 miles away.