by Few cities show off their Christmas decorations with the charm and panache of Harrogate. Maybe it’s the mass of wonderful sandstone buildings and all the Victorian shop fronts that look like they’re from a bygone era. My final stop will be Coach & Horses in West Park, which has changed its name to Sleigh & Reindeers for the festive season.
I start at the train station and head north, passing one of the best cafes in the country, Bettys. Looking inside, I can see a gleam of polished wood and brass, plus platoons of prim staff dressed to serve Charles Dickens pastries bearing names like gingerbread tart and fat knave. It always pains me to pass up those delights, but it’s too soon to stop.
Heading down the hill, I come to the reason for all this 19th-century grandeur: the spa’s pump room. It’s now a fascinating museum, but at the back there’s a brass tap where you can get a sense of what the town became famous for: the stinking sulfur waters, seen by all Victorian doctors as a sovereign remedy for almost everything except credulity. A sign warns you not to test the water, but I do. It is awful.
Looking inside Bettys, I can see platoons of prim staff dressed to serve Charles Dickens pastries bearing names like gingerbread tart and fat knave.
Follow your nose through the imposing gates into Valley Gardens and walk upstream past some beautiful river beds. Gunnera manicata, “giant rhubarb”, covered in winter to protect the rhizomes, since it is a species native to Brazil. From time to time you can smell the smell of sulfur rising from the beach, adding a tremendously volcanic touch to the well-kept surroundings. There are many other specimens of botanical value here: look for dawn redwood, Wollemi pine and a black mulberry. Some trees date back to the park’s opening in 1887, Queen Victoria’s golden anniversary. The park also contains many of Harrogate’s 35 springs and wells, each with a distinctive mix of dissolved chemicals and, at their peak, a supportive circle of quacks.
In 1571, William Slingsby began work, identifying a healing water similar to one he had tried on his grand tour of Europe. By the 1840s, the city had become a thriving resort for the rich, famous and afflicted, all convinced that rigorous spa water and mandatory rest programs were the answer to their problems. The Royal Pump Room Museum’s original exhibits give the flavor: “The journey home may be advantageous if it can be undertaken without undue fatigue.” Those doctors of yesteryear would be furious if they saw today’s runners and walkers pushing themselves too hard along trails where Europe’s crown princes and princesses once walked occasionally listlessly.
I walk uphill toward Pinewoods, a 76-acre (31-hectare) plantation where suddenly all the small birds fall silent and a sparrowhawk flies overhead. A mile later I arrive at Harlow Carr, one of the Royal Horticultural Society’s five display gardens. Plant enthusiasts will probably want to take a detour through the gardens, which themselves are built on sulfur springs.
If you arrive here after dark in December, there is an annual “Glow” winter illuminations festival; You can also enjoy pleasant walks through the kitchen, alpine and winter gardens. The coffee – hooray! – is a branch of Bettys and is the perfect lunch stop, although it can get very busy and queues can form. There is a store if you need takeout for the next afternoon.
With its brass fittings and wood paneling, Sleigh & Reindeers is a quintessential Harrogate pub, exuding solidity and tradition.
On the road again, take the public footpath north towards Oak Beck. There is the opportunity to extend the day considerably by taking the Harrogate Link path on a four-mile detour to John of Gaunt Castle on Beaver Dyke Reservoir (the link eventually connects with the Dales Way in Ilkley). However, as winter days are short, it is best to turn east and follow the Birk Crag ridge. Then, after crossing the road, take the narrow ginnel (remember this is Yorkshire) down between large detached houses to the river. We turn right and follow the river through some beautiful beech and oak forests, with the town’s golf course on the left.
This particular path is part of the Harrogate Ringway, and you can head up to the River Nidd Gorge and then continue for around five miles to Tadcaster (from where you can catch the train back to Harrogate). Otherwise, head up the slope to re-emerge in Valley Gardens.
Now the best ending to any walk awaits you. Visitors of yesteryear no doubt headed to the Royal Baths, where they might have indulged in a “Scottish shower” or “ozone therapy,” but since the baths are now a Chinese restaurant, all that remains from that era are the Turkish baths. . Opened in 1897, this fabulously ornate Victorian interpretation of an Ottoman hammam features a steam room, cold pool and several relaxation areas at different temperatures. If you can time it correctly, this is an advantageous end to what is not an overly fatiguing hike.
Google map of the route.
Begin Harrogate railway station
Finish Coach & Horses Pub, aka Sleigh & Reindeers
Distance 5.25 miles
Time 2.5 hours
Total promotion 207 meters
GPX route map in OS Maps
The pub
With its brass fittings and wood panelling, Coach & Horses is a quintessential Harrogate pub, exuding solidity and tradition. Collections of antique horse parts testify to the former inn function (it appeared in the first guide to the town in 1840) and there are views of the Stray (the 80 hectare area of parkland at the southern end of the town).
The Christmas name change should come as no surprise: the pub has been Cavendish & Horses (for the 2014 Tour de France, which started in Yorkshire) and Sunshine Desserts (for the death of regular David Nobbs, writer of the 1920s sitcom 70 Reginald Perrin). ).
You could just have a pint, but the food is the big draw here. Much of the fruit and vegetables come from the Mount St John estate in the North York Moors. Other ingredients also have a northern accent: fish from Hartlepool, pheasant from Duncombe Park and turkeys from the Yorkshire Wolds. Chefs Graeme Cuthell and Paweł Chekala prepared everything with great aplomb.
The beers are also local – Masham’s Black Sheep and Skipton’s Copper Dragon when I visited – but these cask beers rotate every fortnight.
Where to stay
Next door, and under the same ownership, is the elegant and efficient West Park Hotel. The rooms exude quality: top-notch beds, linens and underfloor heating in the bathroom. Breakfast is served in the hotel’s excellent restaurant overlooking the Stray.
Doublefrom £76 accommodation only, thewestparkhotel.com
