The Yorkshire Dales Cheese Festival returns from 9 to 18 October 2026, with creamery demonstrations, farm-shop tastings and a cheeseboard served 40ft above a limestone gorge.
Fancy a cheeseboard 40ft above a gorge? That is one of the experiences on offer when the festival comes back to the Dales this October. You abseil down into How Stean Gorge in Nidderdale, clip in at a table hanging over the beck, and eat local cheese with the water running below your boots.
Most people hear “Dales cheese” and think of one thing: a trip to the creamery at Hawes and a wedge of Wensleydale for the car. That is still a good day. But for ten days in October the festival opens up the smaller dairies, the farm shops and the goat farms that most visitors drive straight past.
It is not a single event at one site. Individual businesses across the Dales host their own tastings, menus and open days, and each one sets its own times, prices and booking rules. Some are free. Some are paid, limited in numbers or weather-dependent. Check with the venue before you travel.
Event dates: Friday 9 to Sunday 18 October 2026
Location: Participating venues across the Yorkshire Dales National Park and just outside it
Format: Venue-run tastings, demonstrations, farm visits and dinners, not one central festival site
Admission: Varies by venue, from free tastings to paid, bookable experiences
Planning tool: The National Park’s festival page and its Taste of the Dales map
What the Dales Cheese Festival Is
The festival is run by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority as an annual celebration of the Dales’ producers and food and drink businesses. Rather than building a showground, it points visitors to the places already making and selling cheese, and lets each of them put on something special for the ten days.
Cheese and the Dales go back a long way. Tradition credits the medieval monks of Wensleydale with the first recipe, a story we followed in our piece on the Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes. The modern protection is easier to pin down: Yorkshire Wensleydale was given protected geographical indication status in 2013, so only cheese made to that specification can carry the name.
The festival covers a much wider spread than Wensleydale, though. Goat cheese from the Cumbrian edge of the National Park, raw-milk cheese near Ingleton and small-batch farmhouse cheese all sit on the same map.
Watch Cheese Being Made
Wensleydale Creamery, Hawes
The creamery is the anchor of the festival and the easiest place to start. From 9 to 18 October, it runs cheese-making demonstrations, with a viewing gallery above the production floor, an interactive trail, and a tasting room where you work along the counter, one cube at a time. The air in the viewing gallery smells of warm milk and curd.
Children under 16 get free entry to the Cheese Experience during the festival. Adult tickets were listed at £5.95 on the creamery’s website at the time of writing, and the experience runs from 10am to 4.30pm. There is a shop and café on site, so you can buy what you tasted.
Hawes itself is worth an hour either side. Country Living recently ranked it one of Britain’s most overlooked small towns, and we looked at why in our guide to Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales.
Curlew Dairy, Carperby
For the small-batch version, head down Wensleydale to Carperby. Curlew Dairy makes Yoredale, a Wensleydale cheese made by hand from unpasteurised milk in small batches. Its founders left finance jobs in Manchester to start making cheese in 2019.
The festival listing gives a sampling day on Friday 16 October, 9am to 4pm, where you can taste and buy cheese, meet the team, and watch cheesemaking through viewing windows. Confirm parking and access with the dairy before you go, as this is a working farm dairy rather than a visitor attraction.
Sample and Shop
Country Harvest, near Ingleton
The simplest stop on the list. Country Harvest, on New Road just outside Ingleton, is a deli, food hall and coffee shop. For the festival, it is serving cheese scones made specially for the ten days, with free tastings of local Yorkshire cheeses at the deli counter from 9 to 18 October. No booking, no ticket, and an easy stop if you have children in the back of the car.
Lowfields Farm Dairy, Westhouse
Close to Country Harvest, Lowfields Farm Dairy at Westhouse is a small family farm with a micro-herd of native cattle. It sells raw, unhomogenised milk and traditional farmhouse cheese through a self-service farm shop, and it is listed as part of the festival for its full run. Check opening hours and what is in stock before making a special trip.
Piper Hole Goat Farm, Ravenstonedale
Over the county line in Cumbria, on the edge of the National Park, Piper Hole Goat Farm makes goat cheese and handmade goat-milk soap from its own herd. Its meadows were named Cumbria’s first Coronation Meadow. The farm asks visitors to get in touch ahead of a visit, so ring or email before you set off.
Book an Evening Tasting
Cheeses of the Dales, Stone House Hotel, Hawes
On Saturday 17 October, local cheese expert Phil Jones hosts an evening of ten Dales cheeses, each matched with a wine, at Stone House Hotel, an Edwardian country house built in 1908 just outside Hawes. The event runs from 7pm to 10.30pm.
Read the small print. The tasting is listed at £45 per person, but it is sold as part of a two-night bed-and-breakfast stay, not as a standalone ticket. Spaces are limited.
Elsworth at the Mill, Skipton
Elsworth at the Mill in Skipton is running a five-course cheese-and-wine pairing on Friday 9 October for £49.95. At the time of writing it had already sold out, which tells you how quickly the evening events go. If a dinner or tasting appeals to you, book the moment you see it.
Ledge ‘n’ Dairy at How Stean Gorge
How Stean Gorge sits between Stean and Lofthouse in upper Nidderdale, a narrow limestone gorge cut by How Stean Beck that has drawn paying visitors since the 19th century. One of its side caves, Tom Taylor’s Cave, is said to be named after a highwayman who hid there.
Ledge ‘n’ Dairy is the festival’s showpiece. You abseil 40ft to a table suspended over the gorge, with all the safety kit provided, and eat a board of local cheese with crackers, chutney and a small glass of port. Slots last an hour, and the sound down there is the beck, loud enough to drown out conversation after rain.
It costs from £60 for two; advance booking is essential, and it depends on the weather. The National Park lists it on October weekends from 3 October, so it runs beyond the festival’s ten days rather than only during them. Check the gorge’s website for dates and any suitability requirements before you book.
Plan Your Day by Area
The Dales are bigger than they look on a map, and the roads between valleys are slow. Pick one area for the day rather than trying to reach every stop. These groupings are ours, not an official route, and not every venue opens at the same time.
Hawes and Wensleydale: Wensleydale Creamery, Curlew Dairy on 16 October, and the Stone House Hotel tasting if you are staying over.
Ingleton and Westhouse: Country Harvest and Lowfields Farm Dairy, a few miles apart. Pair them with a walk; our guide to river walks in the Yorkshire Dales has options.
Nidderdale: How Stean Gorge, a day on its own.
Skipton: an evening option, subject to tickets.
Where to Stay
Stone House Hotel, Hawes. A family-run Edwardian country house with 24 bedrooms and original oak panelling, and the host of the festival’s Cheeses of the Dales evening.
Worth Knowing
- Yorkshire Wensleydale is a protected name, awarded PGI status in 2013. Not every Wensleydale-style cheese can use it.
- Each venue runs its own event. There is no festival wristband and no single ticket.
- How Stean’s cheeseboard runs on weekends that stretch past the festival, so if 9 to 18 October does not work, you may still get a slot.
Practical Tips
- Use the National Park’s Taste of the Dales map to see which venues are participating before you plan your route.
- Book evening tastings and the How Stean experience early. The Skipton pairing had sold out nearly two weeks before the festival.
- Bring a cool bag for the car, especially for raw-milk cheese from the farm shops.
- Contact farms directly before visiting. Piper Hole asks for advance contact, and working dairies may have limited parking.
- Dress for October in the Dales: waterproofs and layers, and proper footwear for gorge paths.
- Use the AllTrails app to add a walk between stops.
Reader Q&A
Is the Yorkshire Dales Cheese Festival free?
Partly. Some stops are free, such as the tastings at Country Harvest, while others are paid, including the How Stean cheeseboard from £60 for two and the Stone House tasting, which comes with a two-night stay.
Do I need to book?
For the evening tastings and How Stean, yes. For creamery visits and farm-shop tastings, usually not, but check each venue’s details before travelling.
Is it suitable for children?
Yes, for most stops. Under-16s get free entry to the Wensleydale Creamery Cheese Experience during the festival, and the farm-shop tastings are easy stops for families. Check How Stean’s requirements before booking the abseil.
When does the festival run?
From Friday 9 to Sunday 18 October 2026. Individual events run on their own dates within that window, and How Stean’s experience runs on weekends beyond it.
Ten days of open doors across the Dales, and the best cheese is still made a few fields from where it is sold.
Which stop would you choose first? Save this guide for October, and browse more in our Events section, including our Yorkshire food festivals roundup.
