Guides ·Food & drink

Skipton: the big Dales market

Skipton's market runs along the broad High Street below the castle on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, roughly 9am to 4pm, and it is the largest and liveliest in the Dales. Expect 60 to 100 stalls on a Saturday: fruit and veg at prices that undercut supermarkets, cheese, a good fish van, plants, fabric, tools and cheap socks. The buildings behind are handsome Georgian, the canal basin is a two-minute walk, and there is a food-focused market on selected Sundays.

What to buy: Dales cheese, pies from the butchers on the High Street, and picnic supplies for Malham or Grassington. Practicalities: arrive before 10.30am on Saturday for parking, or better, come by train — Skipton station is a 10-minute walk and served from Leeds and Carlisle. Budget £12 to £18 for two people's lunch materials plus fruit for the walk. This is also the best market in the county for browsing without buying, which is a legitimate use of an hour.

Malton: Yorkshire's food capital

Malton has staked its identity on food and delivered. The monthly Malton Monthly Food Market takes over the Market Place on the second Saturday, roughly 9am to 3pm, with 40-plus producers: charcuterie, sourdough, cheese, shellfish from the coast, cakes and street food at £6 to £10 a plate. On other days, Talbot Yard off Yorkersgate operates as a permanent producers' yard — coffee roaster, gelato, bakery, brewery, cured meats — mostly open Wednesday to Sunday from around 9am or 10am.

The Malton Food Lovers Festival over the late May Bank Holiday is the county's biggest food event and fills accommodation for miles, so book rooms months ahead or day-trip from York, 25 minutes by train. Combine the market with the town's butchers and the surrounding Ryedale farm shops for the best self-catering shop in North Yorkshire. If you are staying locally, Malton rooms run £85 to £130, and the market weekend is genuinely worth timing a trip around.

Richmond and Leyburn: the northern Dales pair

Richmond's market fills the vast cobbled Market Place beneath the Norman keep on Saturdays, around 9am to 4pm, with a smaller Thursday market and periodic farmers' markets. It is the most photogenic market setting in the county: the obelisk, Trinity Church tower in the middle of the square, and Georgian frontages all round. Buy Swaledale cheese, local lamb and baking, then walk down to the Falls on the Swale. Parking in the square is limited and metered; use the Nun's Close or station car parks.

Leyburn's market runs Fridays across its own large square, roughly 9am to 3pm, and is the working heart of Wensleydale — practical goods, farm produce, plants, and a proper agricultural feel. It is 20 minutes from Hawes and the Wensleydale Creamery, and 10 minutes from Middleham's racing yards, which makes it an easy morning on a Dales driving day. Rooms in Leyburn are £80 to £115, making it one of the best value bases in the northern Dales.

Knaresborough, Ripon and Harrogate

Knaresborough has held a market in its square since a charter of 1310 and still runs it on Wednesdays, about 8.30am to 3pm. It is compact, friendly and five minutes from the viaduct viewpoint and the castle ruins. Combine with a walk along the Nidd gorge to Mother Shipton's Cave. Ripon runs a Thursday market in one of England's largest market squares, with the hornblower setting the watch at 9pm nightly, a ritual unbroken for over 1,100 years — worth staying in town for.

Harrogate is less about traditional stalls and more about food halls, delicatessens and periodic farmers' markets, but it makes the list for range and quality: cheese, charcuterie, spice and coffee at a standard the market towns cannot match. Prices are higher, unsurprisingly. Use the 36 bus from Ripon or Leeds, which runs every 20 minutes, or the train from York and Knaresborough. All three towns are within 25 minutes of each other, so a market-hopping day is realistic.

Thirsk, Northallerton and Bedale

Thirsk's market fills its cobbled square on Mondays and Saturdays, around 8.30am to 3pm, and is unpretentious and cheap: veg, plants, hardware, cakes, and a couple of excellent butchers on the square. It is the market to shop at rather than photograph. Combine with the James Herriot museum at 23 Kirkgate, and note that the town sits 10 minutes off the A19 with easy parking, which makes it the most practical market stop for drivers.

Northallerton runs Wednesday and Saturday markets along its wide High Street, with a farmers' market monthly; it has the best everyday shopping in the northern Vale of York and sits on the East Coast Main Line, making it a genuinely cheap base at £65 to £95 a night. Bedale's Tuesday market, held since a 13th-century charter, is small, old-fashioned and worth the detour if you are passing on the way into Wensleydale. Boroughbridge and Easingwold both run smaller weekly and monthly markets.

Coast and city: Whitby, Scarborough and York

Whitby's market operates on Saturdays in the Market Place off Church Street, with additional days in summer, plus fish sold direct near the harbour when boats land. The real food shopping here is the smokehouses and fishmongers — kippers, crab, lobster — which run £5 to £18 depending on what you buy. Scarborough has a covered market hall on St Helen's Square, open most weekdays with a food hall element and vintage stalls, plus a seasonal outdoor market.

York has Shambles Market, open daily from about 9am to 5pm between Parliament Street and the Shambles, with around 80 stalls: street food at £6 to £10, cheese, produce, crafts and secondhand books. It is touristed and priced accordingly, but the food-truck end is the best cheap lunch inside the walls. For serious food shopping in York, add the farmers' market days and the delis on Fossgate and Gillygate. Come before noon; by 1pm in summer the aisles are gridlocked.

Frequently asked questions

What people ask before they set off on this one.

Rooms worth pairing with this guide.

Harrogate The Studley Hotel

4.6/5 £81/ night

Tadcaster Holiday Inn York by IHG

4.0/5 £87/ night

York The Grand York

4.6/5 £227/ night

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