Helen Stephenson's Yorkshire Holiday Pictures - October, 2007 - Wensleydale and Aysgarth

Thursday was a day of uncertain weather, with mist curling down over the tops of the hills and the odd spot of rain falling.

The Teapottery in Leyburn is a wonderful place. The factory is open to the public and we walked through and watched the different stages of teapot making. Naturally, the tour ends in a cafe and shop where you can be relieved of money! We chose a Smartea one-cup teapot for Stephen's Mum, who admires the Smart car on which this teapot is based. I also bought a Piano teapot, and might include a picture of that later. A link to the Teapottery's website is included among my Yorkshire links, available from the bottom of this page.

Our main aim for Thursday was to visit the Aysgarth Falls, and luckily the rain, which had made a couple of appearances, decided to leave us alone, and as with the day before, we had quite good waterfall photography weather - cloudy with very little wind.

The falls are divided into Upper, Middle and Lower and we started with the Upper Falls, which are nearest to the car park. Stephen can be seen on the left, bracing his elbow on his knee to steady himself. I was behind him with my tripod set up! I found that this particular waterfall photographed best at about 1/6th of a second, as it made the water flow without making it too fluffy to be believable.

There was peat in the water, which is what gave it the colour. I was very pleased with the effect of blonde strands of falling water when I looked at this set of pictures later.

Once we'd had a good look at the Upper Falls, we walked back to the car park and crossed the road and followed the woodland path to the Middle Falls. These falls go down over a set of steep steps. Through the trees on the other side of the falls, the tower of the church in Aysgarth can just be seen.

Here is a closer view of the water as it tumbles down the steps. The peaty colour adds something: these falls wouldn't look nearly so good if they were unrelieved white.

We left the Middle Falls and followed the woodland trail, which was well worth looking at in its own right.

The Lower Falls went over a series of well spaced out steps. Viewing was from a platform with a hedge in front of it, so the hedge appears in several of these pictures.

By the time we got back to our car, the Tourist Information was closed, so it was just as well that we had stopped in there earlier. I seem to recall that the rather draughty composting "facilities" may still have been open for a quick pitstop though.