I spent my Bank Holiday Monday in gorgeous Bronte country with my friend Emily, and I wanted to share our day with all of you!
We began our journey to Haworth at nine o'clock in the morning and arrived at about twenty past ten. Somehow we managed to avoid traffic and had a relatively smooth run along the motorway and into Haworth, some of the country roads (queue Emily singing every time we were on one) were a little hard to navigate, but we managed it and if we can, then you can too! We parked in the Bronte Parsonage Museum car park, it was £4.00 for the day and there are three hundred available spaces. When we arrived the car park was near enough empty and the weather was pleasant despite the sun being stuck behind the clouds. This definitely changed as the day went on!
The first photo opportunity of the day!
Dress is from New Look, bag is M&S, Tights are Boots (and they're SO comfy and long), Converse from Office! Believe it or not people do sometimes ask 😊
Em's t-shirt dress is from Pretty Little Thing and her cycle shorts were a New Look find.
Entry to the museum was £6.50 with a student card and tickets are valid for twelve months after purchase, so that gives us an excuse to go back - as if we needed one though? We wandered round the house at our own pace and enjoyed reading all about the lives of the Bronte sisters, their father and, of course, their brother Branwell (he's my favourite). Photographs are permitted inside the house providing you don't use your flash!
The Bronte Parsonage Museum (where the Bronte's lived and where some of their most famous novels were written).
After looking in the museum we headed out onto the main street and popped in a few shops before arriving at a pub - typical, I know! The hill is scattered with cool, independent cafes, shops and pubs, all of which reminded me of the type you would find in Whitby, or even at the top of Steep Hill in Lincoln. Very cute, very traditional and, as is to be expected, very expensive. So f you're planning on buying souvenirs; make sure you've budgeted for it ahead of the trip.
Outside the museum and en route to the main street.
You can see that the sun was starting to shine by this point! It turned out to be a glorious day and though we never checked the temperature I would definitely guess that it was in the high twenties! We had a lovely time exploring the shops and decided that our favourite was The Cabinet of Curiosities, which you can see below.
After all that exploring we decided to quench our thirst at The Fleece Inn; a classic looking pub that served up Timothy Taylor beer from the local brewery, tasty looking pub lunches and none other than my absolute FAVE - Cherries and Berries Old Mout!
Once we had finished our drinks, we headed back out and down to the Haworth Railway Station where we got the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway service. For once in my life I didn't actually plan an itinerary for the day, but instead just picked a few things for us to do and squeezed them into the day as and when it suited us! Most of the village's tourist attractions are situated close-by to each other and the routes are very scenic!
All aboard! It cost us £24.00 collectively to travel on the steam train but I did forget to ask for a concession, so it might have been a little bit cheaper had I done that! The journey is only 4 1/2 miles but it takes a little longer than usual because the train runs a little slower. It's well worth the money for the experience and for the views, but it was boiling hot in that carriage, so be prepared for that if you're going to travel - especially with small children or elderly people.
By the time we were back in Haworth it was about two in the afternoon and we were feeling very peckish! We actually both bought a packet of crisps for the return lag of the journey just to keep us going until we found somewhere for lunch! I stumbled upon the Cobbles and Clay cafe through Trip Advisor and we decided to give it a go.
We both went for the Ploughman's Lunch and my GOD this was a good choice 😍 You know I'm a big foodie who lives and dies for my cafe lunches, but usually I'd stick to somewhere I already know and can trust, so this felt like a bit of a plunge in the dark to be honest! It just goes to show, sometimes you've got to take the plunge because this was so delicious. My only regret is not checking which cheeses there would be on the board because I bloody hate blue cheese so didn't even touch that, but the other two were a smoked and regular cheddar, and both were incredible! The ham was thick (like me lol) and fresh, the bread was homemade, and the caramlised onion chutney just tied all those flavours together. I seriously recommend this place, they have so many hot and cold lunchtime meals on offer, an array of chilled drinks that'll wash it all down, and some seriously good looking cakes and puddings. Yum! So you can be on the lookout for it, I'll insert an image of the cafe's exterior below.
After lunch it was sadly time to leave Haworth. With it only being a village, you can pretty much get all of your exploration done within just a morning or an afternoon! It took us about four hours to look in the shops, the museum, to have a drink in the pub, and to travel on the railway. Of course, you could extend your visit by having an ice-cream from the ice-cream van parked outside of Central Park. Before I left that morning my mum suggested i take a picnic blanket but I was insistent that I wouldn't need one, I really wish I'd listened to her (this happens a lot to be honest because she's usually right) and then we could've sat in the sunshine in the park! The blanket would've also come in handy for our next venture too, because we weren't finished with our day out quite yet!
There's a walking trail from Haworth that takes you to Bronte Waterfall. The route is over seven miles long so was definitely not an option for Emily and I, who are quite simply opposed to walking that far and especially in such heat. However, we took the car and travelled closer to the public footpath, which meant we managed to reduce the walk down to just 3/4 of a mile! Don't get me wrong, it was still a difficult task. Emily's sandals and my dyspraxia made it all the more complicated by rendering our coordination as we practically abseiled down the hill, but somehow we made it!
This was the view from where we originally parked the car, however we managed to maneuver it up a further windy road to get that bit closer to the waterfall. (When I say we, I mean Emily, because all I did was enter panic mode, then become aware of this and attempt to enter supportive friend mode).
It was less of a waterfall and more a stream, but nonetheless was very pleasant and well populated on this sunny afternoon! If we'd have only had a picnic blanket, some snacks and a large bottle of water, I think we could've spent hours there!
I was dying to take those tights off and paddle but I was not prepared to expose my pale, mosquito bitten legs!
It was so beautiful! I'm really glad went off-road and braved the dodgy hills to get there, not only did we get some fantastic photographs but it also boosted our step count up to a very respectable 12,000. Even if you're not very fit, you'd definitely be able to manage this shortened version of the hike, and if you are a little bit healthier, you should go for the full treck - rather you than me though.
Walking back from the waterfall was a lot easier than walking to it, probably because we knew the route by then! We were soon back at the car and travelling home after a super day out. Em and I haven't ever done anything like this together before, I used to rely on my ex-boyfriend for days out or my parents, but going with a friend was so much fun! I think this is my favourite day out from my adult life to be honest! The weather was beautiful, the company was great and the place was utterly stunning. There was little to no stressing (perhaps a tiny bit on the country roads but we laughed away our tears) and for once I didn't feel the need to be totally prepared with a full itinerary, I trusted that we would make our minds up once we were there and that's exactly what we did! Thank you Em, if you're reading, for such a bloody lovely time. I wish we hadn't waited until the end of summer because now we're not going to fit anymore in until next year - but there are always Christmas markets to be explored, hint hint!!!
If all of this wasn't enough for you, I also filmed parts of day (for the first time ever) because I think a video tells you a lot more than an image does. So this is a Life as a University Graduate exclusive! It was actually quite difficult to remember to record so I didn't film a lot... Rest assured, I won't be giving up my day job to pursue a career in vlogging anytime soon, but I thought I would attach the video here anyway so that anyone who is interested can take a look! I really hope it does Haworth justice 😊
Thank you very much for reading/watching, I have a few more posts scheduled to go live this week and then I'll be back at school and my NQT year will officially be underway. I've had a lovely summer and this outing really was the cherry on top of the cake, so I hope you've enjoyed reading all of my posts and keeping up to date with it all. Please do scroll up and subscribe (you should see a box on the right hand-side of this page to do so) to make sure you never miss a post.
Until next time,
Jess x