New Year in Kettlewell
We celebrated New Year 2018-19 in Kettlewell and it was everything we wanted it to be, from walking and cosy pub lunches to community fireworks.
This year we decided to celebrate the New Year in our holiday home in Kettlewell. After a busy few days over Christmas with 30th birthdays, 3 sets of grandparents to visit and multiple Christmas parties to recover from, we decided to head up to Yorkshire for a bit of a break.
In truth, the few days either side of New Year before family arrived is probably the longest we've spent just the 3 of us since Reuben was born 14 months ago.
Kettlewell is perfect for a young family though. The playground is just 100m from our house, which is just about doable for Reuben now that he's recently started walking - he can walk the distance just fine, but gets very distracted. At the pubs we were made welcome, and even offered a box of toys in the Blue Bell. Skipton is 20 minutes’ drive away and has everything we could need.
First of all we enjoyed some shorted local walks to get our legs back in and headed across to Hawes, the self-proclaimed "town that won't die" and the home of Wensleydale cheese. The drive was stunning, and while we're still glad we chose Kettlewell, Hawes is clearly a thriving town with lots to do.
We stopped for coffee, cake and -of course- cheese and enjoyed the old-fashioned round-about and rocket rocker in the playground - neither Mat or I had seen either for ages!
On the 30th we were joined by my sister and her fiancé and my brother and his girlfriend and we went on a family walk to Kilnsey on New Year's Eve. Reuben was in his sling on my back for most of it, but he had a little walk at the top with his Aunty Bob.
For New Year's Eve Reuben had a sleep in his pram while we had a quick G&T in the Racehorses Hotel - a Gin lovers delight with over 40 gins to choose from! Then we retired to the house for nibbles, music and champers before sneaking out to watch the community firework display.
There must have been 50-100 people gathered on the bridge to watch the fireworks which were put on by the community, but certainly didn't disappoint. Set off from the side of the fell by a local retired motor-cross champion, they were atmospheric and a wonderful way to see in the New Year.
On the first of January the family dispersed and left Mat Reuben and myself to enjoy another incredible walk. I just can't get enough of the views around Kettlewell, and I don't think they will ever get boring.
That left 3 days to relax and explore - not that there is much relaxing to be had when there is a 14-month-old to look after. We went to Boundary Mill, which is about 45minutes away, visited Boulton Abbey, which is 10 minutes from Skipton, and enjoyed a few low-key walks and a very tasty roast dinner at the Blue Bell pub.
And as always, we didn't want to leave.
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