Thursday was our last full day of the holiday and I am pleased to say the sun came out, the rain stopped and we had a very good walk.
We are slightly off the main tourist area although quite a few walkers come past our barn and seem surprised when we meet them as we drive in and out along the rough track which we call a drive. We walked over the hill to Malham, had an excellent lunch in the Lister Arms and then walked back along a slightly different path. Probably 10 miles, two good climbs and once out of Malham we did not see a soul. Great.
As I mentioned before the reason we stopped coming to the Dales was the influx of tourists. Today, mid week, out of season and, until today, poor weather yet the cars were still parked nose to tail on the road leading into Malham. A weekend in summer would be hell.
The Bookilber Barn where we are staying has a book about the history of the house. In 1805 the building was described as "now used as a preaching house for a certain sect of people called Methodists".
One recollection is from a man who moved here in 1941 when his parents died. The family who lived here adopted him but he had to walk the 1 1/2 miles each way to school across the moors every day. They had no electricity so had to use a pony to carry in paraffin for lighting and heating.
In 1947 they were isolated from the first week of January to 16th June, they had chickens, a cow and plenty of rabbits but presumably they did not have any vegetables for most of the period.
Another resident of the Barn was Russell Harty who lived here around 1971 with his sister whilst he was teaching at Giggleswick school and before he became famous as a TV chat show host.
The house was then used by followers of Gurdjieff, a spiritual leader whose religion seems to have hit the buffers, they managed to burn it down in 1996 and one of the followers lost their life in the fire.
Finally the burnt out shell was bought and the house restored to it's current, very high spec, holiday home. If you want to buy it is on the market for £1.25m.
We are driving home tomorrow but it has been a memorable birthday bash which Gill won't forget in a hurry.