Cool Caravanning, Updated Second Edition. Caroline Mills

      Caravanning at Woodend Farm

      Individual hardstanding pitches are raised above the brook, making it a great site to enjoy the views even in the depths of winter when the frost plays games with the sunlight over the hills. A large grass field caters for summer visitors who don’t require hook-ups and provides enough space for children to play football without fear of reprisals from concerned ‘van owners. In spring, lambs cavort around the fields in the valley and up on the bank behind the campsite, where the stone walls keep them from straying to greener grass (most of the time).

      Margaret and Edward Hird have been farming the land at Woodend for a lifetime. They’ve been showing the baby animals to excited children staying on the site for over 35 years, and, while the lambs of the seventies have long since seen the mint sauce, the children are still returning, now with their own offspring, to see the latest flock dance in the fields. It’s a comforting cycle, one that shows life moving on and how the beauty of the place and the friendliness of the people gets under the skin and works magic in the hearts of campers.

      But it’s not just the campsite that impresses old-timers and newcomers alike. The Yorkshire Dales, with their assortment of peaks, coves, the greenest of green pastures and bleakest of fells, and unique geological features do impetuously force visitors to return. While the three peaks of Ingleborough (this one does ‘hide’ over the top and round the corner from Woodend Farm), Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent look harmless enough on the bluest of summer afternoons, they’ve caught out many a walker on desperate days. They are certainly imposing, both to the fell-runner up for the ultimate of challenges or to the onlooker whose only thought is never to be found at the top of the plateau-shaped peaks.

      If you consider yourself an onlooker, then you could do worse than to take a circular tour from the campsite. Taking in Ribblesdale and the road from Ingleton to the Ribblehead Viaduct is one of the most spectacular drives you could possibly find. However, being conscious of filling the clear Dales air with stagnant exhaust fumes, it’s a good flat route for cyclists too. Sometimes, it can feel as if you’re the only person in England and you’re glad to be alone until you reach the meeting point of two roads with the giant viaduct. Here, the world meets to enjoy the views, paddle in the Ribble or picnic in the most open of self-provided restaurants.