Today we continued our drive through the Yorkshire Dales crossing the border into Scotland heading to our hotel in Dumbarton. Dumbarton was the closest city to Troon with reasonable hotel rates as we are heading to The Open tomorrow. Along the way we stopped to hike the Calf and Cow rocks to get a wide-angle view of the Dales.

High on Ilkley Moor the Cow and Calf Rocks are a large rock formation consisting of an outcrop and boulder, also known as Hanging Stone Rocks. The rocks are made of millstone grit, a variety of sandstone, and are so named because one is large, with the smaller one sitting close to it, like a cow and calf.

According to local legend, the Calf was split from the Cow when the giant Rombold was fleeing an enemy, and stamped on the rock as he leapt across the valley. The enemy, it is rumored, was his angry wife. She dropped the stones held in her skirt to form the local rock formation The Skirtful of Stones.

Bolton Abbey – The nave of the abbey church was in use as a parish church from about 1170 onwards and survived the dissolution of monasteries. Building work was still going on at the abbey when the Dissolution of the Monasteries resulted in the termination of the priory in January 1540. The east end remains in ruins. A tower, begun in 1520, was left half-standing, and its base was later given a bell-turret and converted into an entrance porch. Most of the remaining church is in the Gothic style of architecture, but more work was done in the Victorian era, including windows by Pugin. It still functions as a church today, holding services on Sundays and religious holidays.

Grassington – The town’s history is closely linked to the Domesday Book, which was compiled in 1086. In the book, Grassington is recorded as a small village with a population of just over 100. The village was owned by the Bishop of Chester and had two churches.

Despite its small size, Grassington played an important role in the English Civil War. The town was a Royalist stronghold and was the scene of a major battle in 1643. The Royalists were defeated and the town was captured by the Parliamentarians.

Grassington has a lively center with shops, cafés and a regular farmers market, as well as now being the location of the fictional market town Darrowby in All Creatures Great and Small.