From York to the Dales - where shall I wander?

[PashaMinaMio]

I’m shortly driving to York from SW England.

Can the hive mind recommend where I should visit in the Dales en route home after my business in York is finished please?

I’d like to spend a couple of nights exploring the beautiful scenery but am not familiar with the county so want to make the most of it.
Thank you.

You must visit Bolton Abbey near Skipton! A beautiful place. And if you have time, a visit to Malham is fabulous and a walk up to the limestone pavement will show off some beautiful dales scenery. Enjoy x

I’ll second Malham and add grassington some gorgeous walks

Malham is great if the weather is good.

The Wensleydale Creamery is nice, if you happen to like cheese. Lots of free tasters in the shop and more if you do the very reasonably priced little talk/museum.

Fountains Abbey if you happen to be passing. Also Brimham rocks.

Middleham - go round the castle!

Upper Swaledale is fabulous and will probably be a bit quieter than Malham, Brimham, etc.

Malham - it can get really busy at weekends, especially when the weather is good, but it really is a good snapshot of the best of the Dales. There's a good circular walk taking in Janet's Foss, Goredale Scar and Malham Cove that will take a couple of hours.

Second these.

It depends how far out of your way you want to go, and what you want to do - how much walking and how hilly, do you want to visit gardens, castles etc or not?
if you want literally ‘en route’ - obviously you’ll be going a bit further north than you need to to get home, but look out along the A59. Bolton Abbey is indeed one obvious place - gorgeous river walk, as long or short as you want; climb up to Simon’s Seat for a hill with good views.

Or for Fountains abbey, brimham rocks, Patley bridge, grassington you go up towards Ripon then along the B road. From grassington you’ve got a choice of directions. Down to Bolton abbey or skipton, work your way round to malham (the cove and tarn are lovely but not en route to anywhere!).
the hilliest part is further west yet, with the three peaks, and also the Ingleton waterfalls trail. Maybe save those for your next trip up, they’re more easily accessible from the M6 side.

Oh there’s some great ideas here. I’ll look everything up and plot a route.

Im Airbnb north west of York city so I’ll check out map and work out where to go from there.
Im looking forward to it.
Thanks to you all.