Happy Halloween, dear readers! One of the amazing things about living in York is that we are on the doorstep of some of the most gorgeous countryside that England has to offer. The moors, the dales, the Pennines, even the Lake District is just a short car drive away. And when you read lists of the top 10 waterfalls in the entire UK, one of them is a 40 minute car ride from York: Falling Foss Waterfall.
Falling Foss is located between York and Whitby. It’s in the North York Moors and is situated in a forest where you can follow a circular route through the woods and walk along the babbling May Beck. There’s the most magical woodland tea room a short walk from the waterfall car park, where the food is excellent, and reasonably priced, but more importantly, looks like a tea area set up by a fairy queen. It’s all outdoors, with tree trunks and fairy lights galore.
It’s not just woodland and the waterfall that you can visit: the Hermitage is a cave carved out of a massive boulder that walkers will stumble across as they explore the area. It dates from the 1700s and local legend holds that it was home to a Yorkshire hermit in the 18th century. I can’t even imagine how isolated it must have been. (Which slightly appeals to my inner introvert – but only slightly.)
The walk to the base of the waterfall is extremely tricky. It’s not signposted at all, and at first it appears as you just have to traverse down an impossibly sheer edge to basically stumble on the way down. That’s the way that Sam, Harold and I first tried to get down there. After some skinned knees (and even worse, some skinned palms) we quickly realised that we needed to abandon that route and try to find a less dangerous way down.
It turns out that if you follow the circular route past the Hermitage, after you cross over the first or second bridge, there’s a very small path that walks you along May Beck to the waterfall. It’s a blink and you miss it path, and you wouldn’t think it was an official one at all!
The waterfall wasn’t its usual roaring self due to the summer drought and extreme heat, but even so, it was still quite magnificent so I can’t imagine what it would look like at the height of its power!
One of the reasons that we chose to go here was to partake in a spot of wild swimming. It was definitely cold but not as frigid as you might expect. It was refreshing and invigorating and it made me really feel connected and grounded. Harold, however, did not want to swim.
The leaves in the area are particularly gorgeous in the autumn, so it’s not just a warm weather destination.
Have you been to Falling Foss? What’s your favourite UK based waterfall?
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