Masham

Five minutes uphill from the square. The 'shepherded tour' takes about an hour through the malt store and the Yorkshire square fermenters and ends with tastings, usually £15 to £20; there is a bistro and a shop attached. Book online, particularly at weekends. Under-18s are allowed on the tour but obviously not the tasting.

Two minutes from the market square, brewing here since 1827 and home of Old Peculier. Tours run most days in season and include the cooperage, where the last working coopers in Yorkshire still raise oak casks by hand. Around £15. The visitor centre bar pours the range and closes earlier than you would like.

Five miles north-west on the A6108. A twelfth-century Cistercian abbey left as romantic ruin rather than a manicured monument, standing in private parkland with an honesty box of about £5 and wild flowers growing through the stonework. There is a tearoom at the entrance. Allow an hour and go on a bright evening.

Three miles south at Grewelthorpe, a Georgian pleasure ground gone feral — follies, cascades and a ruined banqueting house on a steep wooded gorge. Free, managed by the Woodland Trust, with a car park at Grewelthorpe village. Steep and slippery paths, no facilities, and no phone signal. Best in autumn colour or bluebell season.

Four miles west near Ilton, a full-scale mock stone circle built in the 1820s to give local men work. Park in the forestry car park at Ilton and walk fifteen minutes through the plantation. Free and open at all times. It is bizarre, mildly sinister at dusk, and a favourite with children.

The square fills with stalls from mid-morning — cheese, game, bread, plants — and it is the one time Masham feels like a full-sized town. Combine it with the shops along Silver Street and Market Place, then eat at Vennell's if you booked, or the King's Head courtyard if you did not.

Masham has no railway. Thirsk is the closest East Coast Main Line station at about fourteen miles, roughly 25 minutes by taxi; Harrogate and Northallerton are both around 40 minutes by road. The 159 bus links Ripon with Masham and continues towards Bedale and Leyburn, running through the day on weekdays with a much reduced Sunday service — the stop is on the market square. Leeds Bradford Airport is a little over an hour. In town everything is within four hundred metres, including both breweries, so a car sits still all day. Park free on the market square outside market days, or in the Leyburn Road car park behind it.

Yes, easily, and plenty of people do — they are four hundred yards apart. Book Theakston for late morning and Black Sheep mid-afternoon, or the reverse, and put lunch on the square in between. Each tour runs about an hour with tastings, so allow four hours in total. Do not drive between them; do not drive afterwards either.

Ripon is only ten miles and many people day-trip. Staying, though, buys you the breweries without a driver, dinner at Vennell's, and a very quiet morning square before the coaches arrive. Two nights is right if you also want Jervaulx, Hackfall and Middleham. One night is enough if you only came for the beer.

It falls at the end of September and takes over the whole market square with sheep pens, fleece stalls and sheep racing. Rooms in Masham sell out months ahead for that weekend and prices rise accordingly, as they do for the Steam Rally in July. If you want the atmosphere, book by spring; if you want a quiet town, choose a different weekend.

Train to Thirsk, Northallerton or Harrogate, then a connection. The most reliable is the 159 bus from Ripon bus station, which takes around 30 minutes and drops you on the market square; Ripon itself is reached by bus 36 from Harrogate or Leeds. Check the last return of the day, which is early evening. A taxi from Thirsk station runs to roughly £35.