There’ll be plenty of cheese at the Wensleydale Creamery
When: 23rd – 30th September 2017
Where: Yorkshire Dales
£: Free, but there is a fee for some of the activities
What is it?
The Yorkshire Dales National Park’s first Cheese Festival will be taking place from Saturday 23rd to Saturday 30th September with locally produced cheese and more than 20 different events.
Amongst a host of sampling, making and cookery demonstrations, visitors to the festival at The Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes can also combine tastings with walking, cycling, climbing or canoeing their way round the Dales and Nidderdale during a week-long programme of events.
Cyclists can join a 50-mile ‘Meet the Makers’ jaunt through the country lanes from Wensleydale to Jervaulx Abbey near Ripon, before returning through Coverdale and eating up the miles with a number of sampling stops along the way.
Meanwhile walkers can stride out on one of the milk and cheese guided walks, combining visits to The Wensleydale Creamery, farms and the Dales Countryside Museum to glean more about the rich dairy heritage.
Runners can sign up to the four-mile off-road Truckle Run at Askrigg Camping or take on the Yorkshire Dales Team Building’s challenge of climbing at Twistleton Scar near Hawes in the morning, before spending an afternoon canoeing on Semerwater, interspersed with a ploughman’s cheese picnic lunch.
Get ready for the Yorkshire Dales Cheese Festival (Photo: Stephen Garnett)
Food lovers can sample an array of locally produced cheese, bread, oatcakes, meat, foraged food and preserves throughout the festival week, while restaurants, farm shops and cafés from Malham to Sedbergh, Hawes to Ripon, pull out the stops to lay on wine and cheese parties and special celebratory dining menus. The week culminates with a celebration of local game at Bolton Castle in Wensleydale on Saturday 30th September.
Kids can get in on the action too with visits to the new Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese Experience, or by getting creative with craft activities such as making a cheese label. They can also spend a day in the woods at the Aysgarth Falls Visitor Centre, listening to stories while eating cheese and foraged woodland goodies sitting around a campfire.
The Cheese Festival will run from 10am to 5pm on both Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th September at The Wensleydale Creamery. It will be free to attend, but some charges will be made to participate in certain activities.
More info: www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/visit-the-dales/cheese-festival-17