The Old Craft Barn’s ambience is faultless and the warmth of its owners, Carrol and Joe, without equal. Situated in a peaceful location and lush countryside the old property has been carefully restored and furnished in keeping with its age and with the added luxuries of thick towels, a whole range of wool-fat toiletries, generous hospitality trays and top-whack bedding.
The couple make their own bread and cakes and provide an award-winning breakfast that leaves other establishments pitifully inadequate. There’s also the option of an enticing evening meal.
Nearby is the delightful cobbled village of Dent, as big a secret as you’ll find, approached mainly by exhilaratingly hairy roads, or via a moderate one that leads in from Sedbergh – a small book town backed by the magnificent Howgill Fells. On its outskirts is Farfield Mill; four storeys packed with the most exquisite locally hand-crafted goods that make you itch to buy.
Dentdale, which is on the Dales Way long-distance footpath, is within the Yorkshire Dales National Park and on the edge of Wallace and Grommit country, with the charming market town of Hawes and its Wensleydale Creamery only fifteen miles away.
Passing over Dentdale is the historic Settle/Carlisle Railway, a highly recommended experience. Dent station, however, is almost five miles from the village and is the highest mainline station in the UK at 1150′ above sea level. “Why did they build the station so far away?” someone once asked a local. With typical Yorkshire drollness he replied “I reckon they wanted it next to the line.”
