Yorkshire Waterfalls | - Click on the image above to view gallery
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A couple of years ago we spent a very enjoyable week in the Yorkshire Dales. After what has been a miserable wet summer this year it’s easy to forget that 2006 was actually a very hot, dry summer and the south-east of the country had a hosepipe ban at the time. Well as you can imagine it wasn’t exactly the best time to go visiting places like Aysgarth falls, which had been reduced to a trickle, and we promised ourselves we would return to see them another day.
So, on our way to our holiday in the Lake District in early September we spent a day enjoying some of the places we had visited two years previously, and as there had been a lot of rain recently we were hoping they would be impressive.
 Hardraw Force waterfall We stayed the night at The Green Dragon Inn - the pub you have to walk through and pay for the privilege of looking at Hardraw Force. Hardraw Force is the largest of all waterfalls in England in terms of a single drop, as the water plunges from Hardraw Beck 100ft (30 metres) over a rocky overhang. I woke up early in the morning and noticed it was bright outside. A quick look out the window showed that there was blue sky - I knew this wasn’t what was forecast so quickly got dressed and went out. We enjoyed a leisurely walk to the waterfall before eating our cooked breakfast in the Inn. Sadly the blue sky didn’t last. Over breakfast we decided that we would drive the short distance to Aysgarth and see what the falls were like. In 2006 we could actually walk out across part of the river above the upper falls by stepping from rock to rock, which was very interesting, but today I was so pleased to see plenty of water in the river. I’ve included pictures of both our visits as a comparison - I couldn’t believe it when I found the older ones.
Now taking pictures of waterfalls is fun and most people eventually try to do the milky water effect by slowing down the shutter speed sufficiently to capture water in a blur. I still like to see pictures taken with a fast shutter speed too, so I took some of both types. The effect can be quite hard to achieve on a bright sunny day as the camera finds it hard to compensate and on days like that a neutral density filter will help by stopping the amount of light getting into the camera. I had no such problems on this day however as it was overcast. We enjoyed visiting first the lower and middle falls and then the higher falls where two years previous we walked out on the rocks. There was no chance of me doing that today. It goes without saying that if you are going to do shots with slow shutter speeds the only way to get sharp pictures is to use a tripod of course.  Aysgarth Middle Falls with a fast shutter speed (1/100th)  Aysgarth Middle Falls with a slow shutter speed (1/6th)
Back in the car once more we travelled a short way on the A684 to the delightful quiet village of Bainbridge. It amazes me that this is an A road and I wonder how some of the bigger lorries negotiate the narrow roads. We were still full from our breakfast so didn’t need anything for lunch but we found a lovely shop selling local ice creams which really hit the spot.
Recommended Reading If you are interested in walks in the Yorkshire Dales, these books are very handy to have. You can buy them directly through Amazon.co.uk from this site.  
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We continued on the A684 looking for one more waterfall and I spotted the lay-by for parking just in time. This time it was to find Cotter Force, a waterfall very easy to get to and there is a footpath suitable for wheelchair users too. This was one waterfall I really wanted some sun to shine on as it is surrounded by trees and it really needed some sun to light up the falls hiding in the trees. I was feeling all “waterfalled” out by now and it was time we were heading for Ambleside and our cottage. It had been a very enjoyable day in the Dales once more.
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