Hawes, Yorkshire Dales: One of the UK’s Best Small Towns, Ranked Sixth

A market town 850 feet above sea level has just been named one of the country’s most overlooked places, and the reasons go well beyond the cheese.

Country Living has just put Hawes, Yorkshire Dales, sixth on a national list ranking Britain’s most overlooked towns, built from weather data, outdoor activities, pub numbers and price. Most people who know Hawes already knew that. It sits higher above sea level than almost any other market town in England, at around 850 feet, and it has spent decades being the place walkers pass through on the way to somewhere else. The ranking is new. The reasons behind it are not.

Wensleydale cheese started here. The market has run on Tuesdays for centuries. And within a few miles you get one of the tallest single-drop waterfalls in the country, a mill older than the industrial revolution that built most of Yorkshire’s other mills, and a museum built inside a station that stopped running trains before most of today’s visitors were born.

The Story of Hawes, Yorkshire Dales

Hawes grew up as a stopping point in Upper Wensleydale, a working market town rather than a designed tourist stop, and that distinction still shows. The Tuesday market has operated in the town since it received its market charter, and it still runs from 9am to 4pm, drawing farmers and stallholders from across the dale rather than performing for cameras.

The town’s connection to cheese goes back to Cistercian monks who settled the valley and brought cheesemaking traditions with them. Wensleydale Creamery, still producing cheese in Hawes today, turned that history into the product now sold in supermarkets across the country. The creamery’s visitor centre lets you watch the process from a viewing gallery, something most factory producers stopped offering years ago.

The elevation matters more than it sounds. At roughly 850 feet, Hawes sits among the highest market towns in England, a height that shapes everything from the growing season to the way weather moves through in minutes rather than hours. Locals plan around it. Visitors usually don’t notice until the light changes twice in an afternoon.

What You See When You Visit Hawes

The main street runs cobbled and narrow, lined with independent shops rather than chains: butchers, a proper ironmonger, gift shops selling local sheepskin and pottery. On market day the street fills with stalls from early morning, and by mid-afternoon it empties again as quickly as it filled.

Wensleydale Creamery sits at the edge of town, and even from outside you can smell the cheese-making process on a still day. Inside, the Cheese Experience runs a working demonstration room alongside the original viewing gallery, a shop with more than twenty varieties for tasting, and a restaurant serving food built around the cheese itself rather than treating it as an afterthought.

Walk five minutes further, and the Dales Countryside Museum sits inside Hawes’ former railway station, a building that closed to passengers in the late 1950s and now holds exhibits running from Bronze Age tools to a full Victorian smithy. A preserved industrial locomotive and a pair of old railway carriages still stand on a short length of relaid track outside.

Why It Matters

A magazine ranking captures something real about Hawes, but it misses the part that actually explains why people keep coming back. This is a town that still functions as a town first. The market exists because farmers need somewhere to sell, not because a tourist board asked for it. The pubs serve locals on a Tuesday night as readily as walkers on a Saturday.

That working character is what most “best places to visit” lists struggle to capture, because it doesn’t photograph well and it doesn’t fit a top ten format. Hawes earns its reputation slowly, through repeat visits rather than a single striking view. The ranking gives people a reason to look. What they find once they arrive is a place that was never trying to be found.

When to Go

Tuesday is the day to be in Hawes if the market matters to you, with stalls running from 9am. Spring brings lambs into the surrounding fields and quieter roads before the school summer holidays start. Autumn turns the dale sides gold and thins the crowds again, particularly useful if you want a table at the creamery restaurant without booking ahead. Winter closes some of the smaller attractions early and can bring snow that closes high roads out of the dale, so check conditions before travelling between November and March.

Getting There

Garsdale is the nearest railway station to Hawes, on the Settle to Carlisle line, roughly six miles away. Little White Bus runs a Garsdale Station Shuttle connecting Gayle, Hawes, Hardraw and Garsdale station, timed to meet some services. The same operator runs the Wensleydale Voyager service 156 between Hawes and Leyburn, Monday to Saturday, with connections on to Bedale. By road, Hawes sits on the A684 through Wensleydale, with parking available in the town centre pay-and-display car park.

Where to Eat and Drink Nearby

The Board Inn, on the main street, serves hearty pub food built around Yorkshire produce, including a Black Sheep ale pie that regulars order without checking the menu. For something built directly around the town’s best-known product, Wensleydale Creamery’s own restaurant and coffee shop serve dishes and cakes made with the cheese produced a few metres away, alongside the wider run of old stone pubs across the Yorkshire Dales worth building a longer visit around.

Where to Stay

Herriot’s in Hawes, Hawes, occupies a building more than 120 years old on the main cobbled street, with six en-suite bedrooms and a reputation built on repeat guests rather than marketing. Simonstone Hall Hotel, Hawes, sits just outside town in a former shooting lodge, offering eighteen individually designed rooms and views across the surrounding dale for anyone wanting a quieter base. Both sit within the wider run of cottage and hotel stays across Yorkshire worth checking before booking.

Worth Knowing

• Gayle Mill, a mile from Hawes in the hamlet of Gayle, was built in 1784 and is the oldest unaltered mill building in the UK. Its 1879 turbine still sits in its original position and still works.
• Hardraw Force, reached through the grounds of the Green Dragon Inn at Hardraw, drops 100 feet in a single fall, the tallest above-ground single-drop waterfall in England. Entry costs £4, and the path is level enough for wheelchair access with care, part of the wider run of waterfalls scattered through the Yorkshire Dales.
• The Dales Countryside Museum sits inside Hawes’ former railway station, closed to passenger trains in the late 1950s and converted into a museum by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.

Practical Tips

• Visit on a Tuesday if the market matters to your trip, and arrive before 10am for the best choice of stalls.
• Book a table at Wensleydale Creamery’s restaurant in advance during summer weekends.
• Use the AllTrails app to plan the walk out to Hardraw Force or Gayle Mill, both well within reach on foot from the town centre.
• Wear proper footwear even for short walks. The paths to Hardraw Force and around Gayle Mill can be wet underfoot outside summer.
• Check road conditions before driving into the dale between November and March, when high routes can close with snow.
• Park in the town centre pay-and-display car park rather than on the main street, which stays narrow and busy on market day.

Reader Q&A

Is Hawes worth visiting?
Yes. Beyond the recent ranking, Hawes offers a working market town with genuine cheese-making heritage, a nationally significant waterfall and mill within walking distance, and a museum built inside its old station.

How do I get to Hawes without a car?
Take a train to Garsdale on the Settle to Carlisle line, then connect via the Little White Bus Garsdale Station Shuttle, which runs on to Gayle, Hawes and Hardraw.

What is Hawes best known for?
Wensleydale cheese. The town gives its name to the cheese produced at Wensleydale Creamery, where a visitor centre lets you watch the process and taste more than twenty varieties.

Is Hardraw Force worth the entry fee?
Yes, at £4 for England’s tallest above-ground single-drop waterfall, reached along a short, mostly level path from the Green Dragon Inn at Hardraw.

Hawes carries on producing cheese and running its Tuesday market regardless of where it sits on any list, which is exactly why the ranking found it in the first place.