Aysgarth Falls

Aysgarth is the best free thing in this part of Yorkshire. The River Ure drops over three broad limestone steps in a wooded gorge, the upper, middle and lower falls, spread along a wooded stretch of river, and you can walk between them in an afternoon. It is free, open at any hour, and you walk straight in. It was the setting for a scene in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991, which still brings people, but the falls stand up perfectly well without the film. After a wet week the water comes over the ledges in a sheet and the noise carries through the woods. In a dry August it is a gentler thing, more of a river walk with three good stops in it.

From Tea Time Cafe at 87 Market Place, head west and pick up the A1(M), then come off for Bedale and Leyburn and take the A684 west into Wensleydale. Allow 55 to 60 minutes. The postcode is DL8 3TH for the National Park Centre.

Parking is pay and display, at the National Park Centre and at a second car park across the river. Both are Yorkshire Dales National Park car parks, charging 3 for up to two hours and 5 for anything longer. Read the board at the machine when you arrive, as the full 2026 tariff beyond those two figures is not something we can confirm. The car parks fill on summer weekends and the site is not coach-accessible, so an early start pays.

This is car country. The Leyburn to Hawes bus passes through Aysgarth village, roughly a ten minute walk from the falls, but there is no practical way of joining it from Thirsk. The seasonal Moorsbus M5 from Thirsk, which ran on weekends and bank holidays from 3 April to 27 September in 2026, heads east for Coxwold, Byland, Ampleforth and Helmsley, not west into the Dales. If you are without a car, York or Ripon are the day trips that work.

Walk all three falls. The upper falls are the easiest to reach, and a lot of people stop there and go home, which is a mistake. The path through the woods to the middle and lower falls is the better half of the visit, quieter and with more of the gorge in view.

Beyond the falls the walking opens out. There are village and woodland routes taking in Aysgarth itself and Carperby, and the riverside path carries on for anyone who wants a longer morning. The National Park Centre has the local information and the Coppice Cafe is there for afterwards.

The cost is the first thing: a landscape of this quality with nothing to pay beyond a few pounds for parking. The three-tier structure is the second, because it gives you a walk with three separate payoffs rather than one viewpoint you look at and leave. The woodland setting makes it a good rainy-day walk as well as a sunny one, and rain is what improves the falls anyway. Dogs are welcome throughout. And the position matters: this sits within easy reach of Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes, which is what turns a two hour stop into a proper day in the Dales.

Go after rain. It is the single piece of advice that changes what you see, and a wet spell in the week before is worth more than a sunny forecast on the day. Arrive early on a summer weekend, because the car parks are the constraint here and they fill. Wear boots or decent shoes, since the paths are uneven in places and there are steps down towards the lower falls. Check the National Park Centre hours before you rely on the cafe or the toilets, as it closes through January and runs weekends only from November to March, though the falls themselves are always open. Pair it with the Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes, a quarter of an hour further west along the A684, and you have a full day out that costs very little between you.