Cote Plantation

You'll find yourself among proper woodland once you venture into Cote Plantation, a forest sprawl near Leyburn that doesn't announce itself loudly but rewards those who know it's there. The plantation is straightforward stuff - a managed woodland with trees in various stages of growth, paths threading through, and the kind of quiet you actually can't get in towns. It's the sort of place where you notice the seasons changing: spring bluebells, autumn colour, winter skeletal branches against grey sky.

Walkers get the most from this one. The terrain isn't dramatic, but that's rather the point. You can string together a decent ramble without scrambling up hillsides, and if you're based at Eastfield Glamping Farm or Park Leisure near the Yorkshire Dales, it makes a solid half-day outing. Bring wellies if it's been wet - woodland paths can be boggy.

How long you'll spend here depends entirely on your pace. A quick walk round might take ninety minutes; a proper potter with stops could stretch to three hours. There's no café, no visitor centre, no facilities to speak of. This is forest for forest's sake, which some people find meditative and others find a bit dull. Families with younger kids might find it lacking - there's no playground, no waymarked adventure trail, just trees and paths.

Free access is likely, though you'd want to check locally in Leyburn. Best visited when it's not waterlogged and preferably when you're keen on walking rather than looking for attractions. Not a destination in itself, but a solid addition to a Dales-based holiday.