Few towns wear their Christmas decorations with the charm and panache of Harrogate. Maybe it’s the mass of beautiful sandstone buildings and all the Victorian shop windows that seem from a bygone era. My end point will be the Coach & Horses on West Park – which has changed its name to Sleigh & Reindeers for the holidays.
I start at the train station and drive north, passing one of the best cafes in the country, Bettys. Peering inside, I see a dazzling sheen of polished woodwork and brass, plus platoons of top-notch staff, dressed as if they’re about to serve Charles Dickens with pies with names like ginger pie and fat crook. It always pains me to pass on such treats, but it’s too early in the walk to stop.
As I descend the hill, I reach the reason for all this 19th century grandeur: the spa’s pump room. It’s now a fascinating museum, but at the back there’s a copper tap where you can taste what made the city famous: the stinking sulfur water, seen by every Victorian doctor as a sovereign cure for almost everything except gullibility. A sign warns you not to try the water, but I do. It’s terrible.
When I look into Bettys, I see platoons of high-class staff dressed as if they’re about to serve Charles Dickens with pies with names like ginger pie and fat rascal.
Follow your nose through the imposing gates to Valley Gardens and walk upstream past some pretty beds Gunnera manicata, “giant rhubarb”, covered in winter to protect the rhizomes, as it is a native Brazilian species. Every now and then a smell of sulfur rises from the stream, adding a wild volcanic touch to the manicured environment. There are plenty of other botanical prize specimens here: note the dawn redwood, Wollemi pine and a black mulberry. Some of the trees date back to the park’s opening in 1887, Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. The park also contains many of Harrogate’s 35 springs and wells, each containing a distinctive mixture of dissolved chemicals, and in their heyday, a band of supporting quacks.
In 1571, William Slingsby stirred things up and identified a healing water as similar to the one he had tasted on his European grand tour. By the 1840s the city had become a thriving resort for the rich, famous and destitute, all convinced that rigorous programs of enforced spas and rest were the answer to their misery. The Royal Pump Room Museum’s original exhibits reflect the flavor: “The walk home may be beneficial if it can be accomplished without undue fatigue.” Those doctors of old would get a fit of fumes if they saw today’s joggers and power walkers overexerting themselves on the paths where the Crown Princes and Princesses of Europe once took the occasional listless stroll.
I walk uphill into the Pinewoods, a 31 hectare plantation where all the small birds suddenly fall silent and a sparrowhawk flies over my head. A mile and a half later I reach Harlow Carr, one of the five show gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society. Plant lovers will probably want to take a detour through the gardens, which are themselves built on sulfur springs.
If you arrive here after dark in December, there is an annual winter festival with ‘Glow’ lighting; otherwise there are some lovely walks through the kitchen, alpine and winter gardens. The café – hurray! – is a branch of Bettys and is the perfect lunch stop, although it can be busy and there may be queues. There is a shop if you need takeaway food for the afternoon ahead.
With its copper fittings and wood panelling, the Sleigh & Reindeers is a quintessential Harrogate pub, exuding solidity and tradition
Once you’re back on the road, take the public footpath north down towards Oak Beck. There is an opportunity to extend the day considerably by taking the Harrogate Link path via a four-mile diversion to John of Gaunt’s castle at Beaver Dyke reservoir (the link eventually links up with the Dales Way at Ilkley) . However, with short winter days it is best to head east and follow the ridge of Birk Crag. Then, after crossing the road, take the narrow ginnel (we’re in Yorkshire, remember) between large detached houses to the river. Turn right and follow the river through beautiful beech and oak woodlands, with the city golf course on the left.
This particular path is part of the Harrogate Ringway, and you can go to the River Nidd Gorge and then continue for about five miles to Tadcaster (from where you can catch the train back to Harrogate). Otherwise, head up the slope to resurface at Valley Gardens.
The most beautiful finish of every walk now awaits. Visitors of yesteryear would no doubt head to the Royal Baths, where they might have indulged in a “Scotch shower” or “ozone therapy,” but since the baths are now a Chinese restaurant, the Turkish baths are all that remains of that era. Opened in 1897, this fabulously decorated Victorian take on an Ottoman hammam features a steam room, cold plunge pool and several relaxation rooms with different temperatures. If you can time it right, this is an advantageous end to a not too tiring walk.
Google map of the route
Get started Harrogate train station
Finish Coach & Horses pub aka Sleigh & Reindeer
Distance 5.25 miles
Time 2.5 hours
Total increase 207 meters
GPX map of route on OS Maps
The pub
With its copper fittings and wood panelling, the Coach & Horses is a quintessential Harrogate pub, exuding solidity and tradition. Collections of antique horse bits testify to the role of a former coaching inn (it appeared in the city’s first guidebook in 1840) and there are views over the Stray (the 80-acre park on the southern edge of the city).
The Christmas name change should come as no surprise: the pub was both Cavendish & Horses (before the 2014 Tour de France, which started in Yorkshire) and Sunshine Desserts (before the death of regular David Nobbs, writer of the 1990s sitcom 70 Reginald Perrin ).
You can just have a beer there, but the food is the big draw here. Much of the fruit and vegetables come from the Mount St John estate on the North York Moors. Other ingredients also have a northern accent: fish from Hartlepool, pheasant from Duncombe Park and turkeys from the Yorkshire Wolds. Chefs Graeme Cuthell and Paweł Chekala have put it all together with great aplomb.
Beers are also local: Black Sheep from Masham and Copper Dragon from Skipton when I visited, but these cask ales are rotated fortnightly.
Where to stay
Next door – and under the same ownership – is the smart and effortlessly efficient West Park hotel. The rooms exude quality: first-class beds, bedding and underfloor heating in the bathroom. Breakfast is served in the hotel’s excellent restaurant overlooking the Stray.
Doubles from £76 for a room only, thewestparkhotel.com