Yorkshire Dales on a budget: my peaceful little Swaledale cave

In the second of our new series, a YHA pod in a historic hostel is a cosy base for a 30-mile dale-hopping tour

Some hostels cry out to be visited on the strength of their location alone. The little pink triangle that marks the position of Grinton Lodge on the OS map declares its magnificent isolation on the southern slopes of Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales national park. A footpath and bridleway shoot out from the hostel across Harkerside Moor, and the massive ridge above simply demands to be climbed on two wheels.

The bedrooms in the main building are not due to reopen until next Saturday (17 July), so I stayed in one of the hostel’s five camping pods (there’s also a bigger “Landpod”, sleeping four). Tucked into a lofty copse of mature sycamores and conifers, the pods are sheltered from the vagaries of Dales weather. Impressively sheltered, in fact. I arrived sodden after an extremely damp cycle from Darlington (the nearest railway station, 23 miles away) and was beginning to regret having brought nothing on which to cook but a little twig-burning stove. I needn’t have worried. The ground – and the sticks and fir cones scattered around it – was almost bone dry, despite the torrential rain. Repairing to the stone-built barbecue area that evening, I had no trouble getting a little fire going and soon had dinner bubbling away.