A Relaxing & Enjoyable Break At Masham

We have just returned from an interesting and totally relaxing three days up in North Yorkshire – The King’s Head Hotel in Masham to be exact. We arrived there on Monday late afternoon into a market place that was covered with ice and snow!
After a relaxing two hours snooze in our bedroom, we made our way to the hotel restaurant for a superb meal.

I was so relaxed that I asked the proprietors wife to choose my main course for me from either the Black Sheep Ale Pie or the Chicago Chicken. She chose the Black sheep Ale Pie, which was superb, so the following evening I chose the Chicago Chicken, which was again superb! For starters on the Monday I had home made Carrot and Coriander soup, and the sweet I chose was School Strawberry Sponge and custard.

The Dining Room was fully decorated to suit the Christmas spirit, and there were even crackers on the table on Monday evening.

Afterwards we went for a walk around the market square, which looked delightful with its decorations.

Tuesday morning found us at Leyburn Railway Station, waiting for the local Wensleydale Railway

(A Diesel Multiple Unit complete with festive decorations, and mulled wine and mince pies en route!) The journey consists of a 34 mile round trip between Redmire and Leeming Bar. The scenery along the route was made all the more interesting by the fact that a fair amount of snow had fallen in the previous two days.

It was interesting to see that as we approached some of the level crossings (as at Wensley) the train slowed to a halt, and one of the crew descended to the tracks and walked forward to open the level crossing gates. The train then pulled through the level crossing; the crewman closed the gate, and climbed back on board the train.

Sign at Wensley Level Crossing

We then spent sometime in Leyburn, before returning to Masham for another splendid evening meal!
On Wednesday morning we did some shopping in the local shops (freshly baked bread and bread baps, fruit etc) and then we decided to go for a run on a little country road past Swinton Park Hotel

and then on to Fearby and Ellingstring, and came across a little ford over the road.

We eventually reached Middleham (famed as a centre for race horses) and, whilst we were having coffee and scones in a café I counted over one hundred race horses passing the window!

We drove on to Bedale, and then back to Masham to collect some old fashioned sweets from a wonderful shop called Joneva in the market square. The shop stocks all the old favourites you will remember from your childhood – midget gems, black jacks, and a hundred and one other varieties of sweets, as well as home made fudge with (would you believe it?) Black Sheep Ale Flavour, and Old Peculier Flavour!

We returned via Ripon and spent about 35 – 40 minutes looking in the shops in the Market Square there before returning home.