Weekender: Yorkshire Dales lodge park offers something for everyone

As a lover of the Yorkshire Dales, a bit of good food and pale ale, when I was invited to review the new Thorpe View development at Long Ashes Caravan Park, it didn’t take me long to accept.

Long Ashes Caravan Park sits in Thresfield near Grassington, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, only 15 minutes North of Skipton and is situated in a beautiful idyllic woodland location.

I have to admit that caravan parks are not generally ‘my thing’ but when some of the lodges on offer at this park are currently on the market at £360,000, you understand the standard this park operates at.

We stayed in one of their premier lodges at the Game Keepers Inn. On arrival, we were welcomed with a nice pint of Wainwrights and shown to our lodge.

My first impressions were that the accommodation was smart, clean, new, spacious and comfortable, with a nice view of the woods; which happened to be full of grouse.

That evening, we headed over for the evening to the pub and restaurant for dinner to the Gamekeeper’s Inn. The dining area sits in a nice large modern conservatory while the pub itself retains the character of a good quality Yorkshire pub.

Having already sampled their fine ale earlier, we decided to start our three-course menu with a nice Viognier from their small but good quality wine menu. Surprisingly, a Vouvray actually appeared from the young waitress but after corking and sampling we decided to stick with that given we’d ordered a nice fish platter starter. Maybe my French pronunciation of Viognier sounded like Vouvray!

I think we may have gone over board with the fish platter though, a massive plate of calamari, pil-pil prawns, smoked salmon, fish goujons appeared with bread and tartare sauces. I was most certainly not complaining though, as the standard was superb. You’d have quite happily just had this course for two, with no main. It would feed four!

For mains I stuck with fish with the smoked haddock risotto and Zoe went for the lamb shank and mash. We even squeezed in some fine deserts and a coffee.

With bellies full, we retired early to relax. Back to the Inn for breakfast we went for a good quality Yorkshire full breakfast.

Given all we’d done so far was eat, we decided to have a meander around the park and look at the sites on offer for the luxury lodges of Thorpe View. These 11-month a year homes can be taken as holiday homes for regular luxury Dales retreats. They’re beautifully modern, alpine looking, spacious and would work perfect for families of all different sizes.

The park itself has a nice ambience; it’s quiet and has a relaxed feel to it. Having burned off at least one rasher of bacon with our walk, we thought we’d take advantage of the on-site leisure club for further exercise in the pool.

The club has a gym, pool with attached pool side jacuzzi, sauna, steam room and spa for treatments. The facilities are lovely and a nice compliment to the park.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with the experience. If I was looking for a holiday home at the moment I’d certainly consider as the location is perfect with access to my Dales playground and I left feeling most definitely relaxed and ready for another week at TheBusinessDesk.com!