7-Night Southern Yorkshire Dales Guided Walking

The limestone around Malham

The limestone country around Malham doesn't reveal itself all at once. You walk towards Gordale Scar before you see it — a sudden cleft in the hillside, with a waterfall folding round the rock at its head. A short distance away, Janet's Foss drops into a pool ringed by tufa, and the dry valley above Malham Cove leads up to the broad sheet of water at Malham Tarn. These are the headline sights of the Southern Dales, and this HF Holidays week is built around walking to them rather than driving past.

The base is Newfield Hall, an HF country house a few miles south of Malham, and the format is the one regular HFers will know: up to three graded walks each day, led by experienced leaders, with the choice made over breakfast.

A week of graded walking

The walks fan out across Malhamdale, Wharfedale and Ribblesdale. From the hall itself, a 6.5-mile circuit takes in Airton's eighteenth-century watermill and Kirkby Malham — known locally as the Cathedral of the Dales — before returning along the Pennine Way beside the River Aire. The longer 13-mile option climbs Calton Moor to Weets Top, which gives the best aerial view of Gordale Scar and the cove. Another day moves north to Ribblesdale: an easier 6.5-mile walk passes Smearsett Scar and the waterfalls at Stainforth Force on the way into the market town of Settle, while the harder option summits Pen-y-ghent via Churn Milk Hole and follows the ridge to Plover Hill — one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, and the route most people are quietly hoping to do.

Wharfedale comes later in the week. A gentle 7-mile route links Linton, with its twelfth-century church, through Thorpe and Burnsall, ending at Grassington along the Dales Way. A longer horseshoe takes in the bulk of Kilnsey Crag and a brief scramble up Conistone Dib. A free day mid-week gives walkers space to rest, wander Grassington's cobbled streets, or ride the Settle-Carlisle railway, which threads across the twenty-four arches of the Ribblehead Viaduct.

Newfield Hall and how it works

Newfield Hall is a four-star country house: en-suite rooms, a bar, and the HF house style of sociable meals at shared tables. The price covers full board — cooked or continental breakfast, a packed lunch made up each morning, and a three-course dinner with tea and coffee — plus transport to the start and end of each day's walk. A cream tea is laid on at 4.30pm when you arrive; check-in is from 4pm, or 2pm for HF members.

This suits walkers who want the country and the company without the logistics: no route-planning, no car shuffles, no booking pub lunches. It's social by design — most guests come on their own or as a couple, and the shared tables and graded-walk system make conversation easy. Trip notes with full route details and elevation profiles are available to download for each departure date, and a Discovery Point at the hall has maps and information for anyone who'd rather walk independently on a given day.