Yorkshire Tour Part 6: Yorkshire Dales and Mother Shipton’s Cave

The Yorkshire Dales had the pleasure of our company again as we headed to Knaresborough to the UK’s oldest tourist attraction, Mother Shipton’s Cave.

The evening before, Em had mentioned on Facebook that we were going to Mother Shipton’s in the morning and good lord, the response! People reminiscing about whether it would be the same as when they visited with school (it’s changed very little according to Em), whether we had anywhere else planned in Yorkshire to visit through the week (yes, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots) and   whether they could come with us (an abrupt no).

As you dock up at Mother Shipton’s you can almost feel Knaresborough whisper to you ‘Yeah, I’m kind of a big deal.’

And it’s so beautiful you can’t help but say to yourself, “Yes, Knaresborough. Yes you are.”

The Petrifying Well is actually a little spooky, even for a tough guy like me.  The way the items are just dangling waiting to reach full petrification made it feel like I was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and I could be captured at any moment and be put into the Black Sleep. Fear ye not though, I made it out alive.

We visited the wishing well…

What did I wish for you ask? Well I obviously can’t tell you BUT an interesting tale has materialised from visiting the well…I am in no way superstitious but when I started writing this, I originally made a fairly obvious reference to what I had wished for (something to do with the football team I support).  That weekend, they took the most almighty panning off their rivals. Now, I’m not saying it was Old Mother Shipton giving me a gentle warning to not reveal what I was wishing for but, well, I’ve toned down just how overt I was about what I wished for. Just in case.

Here’s Old Mother Shipton herself…I think there’s a somewhat rustic charm about her.

In the visitor centre, aside from learning more about the area and the history behind the cave, were these exceptionally witty ‘Rules of the Inn’…

But even cooler than that were the items that had been left to be ‘petrified’ including socks, shoes and JOHN WAYNE’S HAT.  I know.

It takes about 3 months for a regular item to completely calcify petrify so I’m going to break out the newspaper and PVA glue and get making a papier-mâché ‘Y’ to petrify.

Next up on our tour, we’re off to Leeds for a look round the Royal Armouries…