Swaledale ewe with lambs and their winter housing

The next part of my birthday 'celebrations' was the trip to North Yorkshire where my parents had very kindly booked a cottage for us. We stayed in a place called Ashrigg which is right in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales - somewhere that gets overlooked somewhat in favour of the Lake District which is to the West but is ruggedly stunning and we fell in love with the place. It is very rural and remote. On our walks up on the fells we didn't see a single person all day which was rather nice. We were pleasantly surprised at how friendly the locals were. Very rurally based and very much struggling with the recession and have been for some time as agriculture is really suffering. We couldn't believe how nearly every field had the most beautifully made barns in - apparently it is normal custom for the hay to be stored on the top floor and the sheep and cattle to spend the winter on the ground floor. They were so well made that it was surprising that more hadn't been converted into houses and sold but I guess planning permission wouldn't be granted in such a beautiful area - thankfully for the visitor but probably not so good for the struggling farmer.