Richmond Town Hall, DL10 4QL |7.30pm | £10

Tom is an ecologist and author, who for over twenty two years worked for the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Oxford University. His authorial career comprised a number of children's books, including 'The River Singers','The Rising', and 'Trickster', all of which drew on ecological knowledge of water voles and rats, and his adult non-fiction comprises 'Elegy for a River' and 'Ghosts in the Hedgerow'. In this talk Tom will introduce you to the wonderful world of water voles, and the conservation challenges they face in Britain. Through his own work he will explain what conservation research actually does, why it hasn't yet achieved the outcomes we all want and need - but why he still has hope for wildlife and our collective future.

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Richmond Town Hall, DL10 4QL | 7.30pm| £10

In March 2022, acclaimed nature writer Roger Morgan-Grenville set out on a 1000-mile walk, from the Solent to Cape Wrath, to follow the spring as it progressed northwards at a speed of 20 miles per day – roughly the pace at which the oak leaves emerge. Concerned by species loss in the UK, he met the individuals who are helping to reverse it, from the allotments of Sheffield to the peat bogs of Kielder, from regenerative farming in the Cotswolds to the reintroduction of beavers near Inverness. Battling Covid, blizzards and age, encountering the kindness of strangers, Roger’s epic eight-week adventure is both life-affirming and life-changing.

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Richmond Library, 10a Queens Road, Richmond DL10 4AE\10:30am

Catterick Library, 1 Gough Rd, Catterick Garrison DL9 3EL | 1:15pm

Colburn Library, Broadway, Catterick Garrison DL9 4RF \3:15pm

Free events but booking essential | Disabled access.

Suitable for 7-11 year-olds who bring their own grown-up

Award-winning author and cartoonist Mike Barfield is back with a new show based on his latest hilarious non-fiction book, 'The World’s First Rollercoaster and Other Amazing Inventions’, with drawings by the fantastically funny Franziska Hollbacher. Expect phenomenal facts, awesome audience participation and lots of lightbulb moments as Blue Peter Book Award-winner Mike brings the book to life before your very eyes!  Learn how bubblewrap was actually first created as the world’s worst wallpaper, how a hat caused chaos, and a dirty dog inspired the invention of one of Switzerland’s biggest brands! All this and more on a wild rollercoaster ride you’ll want to enjoy again and again!

Sponsored by: Catterick, Richmond and Colburn Community Libraries (CRACCL)

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Richmond School & Sixth Form College, Darlington Road DL10 7BQ | 7:30pm | £25 | Refreshments, bookstall, disabled access.

Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was ‘just’ an ordinary housewife, when she clearly wasn’t? Agatha went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why – despite all the evidence to the contrary – did she present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure?

Sharing her research based on the writer’s personal letters and papers, Lucy will uncover the real Agatha Christie – the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman.

Lucy is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces and a hugely popular writer, broadcaster and speaker. Lucy has an OBE for services to history, and her series Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley won the BAFTA.

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Leave Station car park 9.30am. Start at parking opposite Reeth School DL11 6SP (GR: SE 034 992, What3Words: ///inert.holidays.roadblock) at 10.00am. 8 Miles. Moderate. £7

This is a rare opportunity to take part in a guided tour led by of the one of the landowners of the Heggs Castle re-naturing project. The project is a 200-acre collaborative scheme by 3 landowners to increase biodiversity and to develop a natural method of flood management (https://heggscastlecluster.org). Starting from Reeth the walk will follow an old bridleway up the beautiful valley of Arkengarthdale to Heggs Farm to begin the tour. Afterwards the route continues north, crossing the beck to the largely lost hamlet of Arkle Town, before turning back to a steady climb up Calver Hill (487m) to enjoy the views of the Swale and Arkle valleys. It is then a short way back down to the start of the walk. 

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Meet at Altberg Factory Shop on Gallowfields Trading Estate DL10 4TG at 10.00am. 6.5 Miles. Moderate. £7  

Our traditional “Start of Festival” event is a good way to get to know one of the most popular short walks from Richmond, with the added interest of a visit to Altberg, the last remaining boot manufacturer in England. We will start the day at the factory to see how the boots are designed and made - for walking, the army and biking. There’s time for a cup of tea and a look round the excellent factory shop before a walk along Whitcliffe Scar, with great views over lower Swaledale, to hear about the famous but gruesome legend of Willance’s Leap.

Sponsored by: Altberg

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The Station, Richmond DL10 4LD | two workshops 10:00am – 1:00pm and 2:00pm to 5:00pm | £25 | Café/restaurant, bookstall, disabled access

Open to writers of all abilities, this interactive workshop will delve into the relationship between nature and the Gothic. As a starting point, we’ll broaden our understanding of the Gothic to explore examples of powerful, contemporary writing which articulates an uneasy human-natural world relationship: how do these writers create such dark, bleak landscapes and fill them with a sense of menace or fear? Then it’s our turn: we’ll investigate ways in which we can turn the natural to unnatural, familiar to strange or uncanny, in our own writing.

Alison published a novel for young adults and a study guide on ecocritical theory before completing her doctorate in Creative Writing in 2023. Her  novel, ‘Wyrd Magic’ explores personal grief through nature-Gothic writing. She has published a number of creative pieces in journals including Gothic Nature Journal and The University of Exeter’s ‘Exclamat!on’.

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Richmond Town Hall, DL10 4QL | 7:30pm | £10 | Refreshments, bookstall, disabled access.

Paddy Crewe and Tom Crewe are brothers and grew up on Teesside. They published their debut novels - extraordinary fictions, somewhat leaning towards the historical - in 2022 and 2023.  Paddy Crewe’s second novel 'True Love' is out now, while Tom Crewe’s debut 'The New Life' has just won him the prestigious Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award.

Paddy Crewe’s 'True Love' is a beautiful exploration on whether growing up means growing apart or growing together. Tom Crewe’s tour de force 'The New Life' is a novel set in the 1890s concerning the battle to be free with one’s sexuality at a time when such behaviour was banned.

Can families grow together in spirit whilst growing apart in location? How important is the sense of where we come from in our lives?

Tom Crewe and Paddy Crewe will be in conversation with Austin Lynch

Sponsored by: Millgate House

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Leave Station car park at 9.00am. Start at “The Thrang” (on B6259) (GR: NY 783 005, What3Words: ///willing.darker.ferried) at 10am. 11 Miles. Hard. £7

Our walk provides a challenging day out in the Eden Valley and Mallerstang, to climb the readily identifiable Wild Boar Fell.  Starting from 'The Thrang', we climb the Old Road, passing the attractive Eden River Millenium Sculpture, and crossing the exposed limestone pavement to the dramatic Hell Gill. Then it’s down to Hell Gill Force before heading up the other side of the valley and onto Swarth Fell. From here a long ridge leads us onto the summit of Wild Boar Fell at 2,323ft. We will admire the stone pillars, built in Victorian times, and the views of Mallerstang, before the steep descent past High Dolphinsty back to The Thrang.

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Leave Station car park 9.00am. Start at Keld, Rukin Farm Car Park (GR: NY 892 012, What3Words: ///attending.sonic.drag) at 10.00am. 5 Miles. Moderate. £7

Some years ago the National Park completed a project “Every Barn Tells A Story”.  In these parts a field barn was always referred to as a “Cow ‘Us”. There were many stories collected about a way of farming now long since gone. Our walk in the picturesque area of Upper Swaledale covered by this project will allow us to look at these barns in the landscape and share some of these stories, whilst enjoying a day out in a lovely part of the Dale.

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Leave Station car park 9.15am. Start at Langthwaite Car Park (GR: NZ 005 023, What3Words: ///ticket.until.yummy) at 10.00am. 6 Miles. Easy. £7

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Arkengarthdale was an internationally significant lead-producing area. Alongside the industry, nonconformist religion flourished, and seeking out the (now redundant) chapels of the time gives an agreeable focus to this easy walk through a remote and peaceful corner of the Dales. Expect historical snippets, wonderful views and the call of curlews and lapwings. Leaving Langthwaite – familiar to fans of the original “All Creatures Great and Small” TV series – we follow Arkle Beck to the tiny hamlet of Whaw, before turning back along the farm road across Seal Houses Moor. After a walk through the grounds of imposing Scar House, a short detour takes us via the deserted churchyard of Arkle Town back to Langthwaite.

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The Station, Richmond DL10 4LD | 10:00am – 1:00pm £55 including materials| Café/restaurant, disabled access.

Have you ever wondered how fine and antiquarian books were made? The art and craft of book making dates back over two thousand years, but whether that’s works from ancient China, Japanese designs, the rich tradition of Islamic bookbinding, or the leather-bound volumes of stately-home libraries, the principles are similar: papers are sewn together and secured within a protective, often decorated, casing. In this workshop led by local bookbinder, Delphine Ruston, see for yourself how books start life by making two books of your own to take away – a 3-hole pamphlet (or chap book), and a single-section, hardback notebook. With a few materials, tools and simple skills, it’s possible to make attractive books to put to whatever use you wish.

Sponsored by: The Station

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Meet outside the Town Hall at 2.15pm. Free but donations to Richmondshire Museum most welcome.

This walk explores Richmond’s Wynds and Lanes offering big views, intriguing nooks, secret places and a chance to hear of the people who lived in them. The walk is mostly on pavements but also has some steep slopes and steps.

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Mocha, 2 The Riding School, Aske Hall, DL10 5HQ | 5:00pm | £14 including a hot drink and a cake\ bookstall, disabled access.

With her first novel set in a haunted chocolate shop and her second novel set in a charming bakery, Jemma Hall's magical realism books (for adults not children) have a delightful foodie focus. Mocha, a chocolatier and café, is a very appropriate location for this talk.

For a flavour of her writing, which combines supernatural stories with delicious descriptions of sweet treats and artisan breads, join Jemma for this talk featuring the scrumptious worlds of her imagination.

Jemma worked as a copywriter and administrator for several years, whilst harbouring a dream of becoming a novelist. Lunch breaks spent in her car, feverishly scribbling words in a notebook, culminated in ‘Cocomolioco’, her first novel, published in 2023. ‘Relentless Noon’, her second novel, was published in March 2024.

Jemma's hope is that readers find a sense of escapism in her books; she lives in North Yorkshire and enjoys exploring the county on the search for weird and wonderful trees.

Sponsored by: Mocha

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Richmond Town Hall, DL10 4QL | 7:30pm | £10 | Refreshments, bookstall, disabled access.

Tom Mead, author of acclaimed mysteries ‘Death and the Conjurer’ and the ‘Murder Wheel’ will be discussing the origins of the “Golden Age Whodunit” and signing copies of his books, including the brand new ‘Cabaret Macabre’. Tom's debut novel, ‘Death and the Conjurer’, was an international bestseller, nominated for several awards, and named one of the best mysteries of the year by The Guardian and Publishers Weekly. Its sequel, ‘The Murder Wheel’, was described as “pure nostalgic pleasure” by the Wall Street Journal and “a delight” by the Daily Mail. It was also named one of the Best Traditional Mysteries of 2023 by Crimereads and nominated for Historical Crime Novel of the Year in the Capital Crime Awards.

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Leave Station car park at 9.00am. Start at Dufton Car Park (Toilet available) (GR: NY 690 250, What3Words: ///terminal.relaxing.cashiers ) at 10.15am 10 Miles. Hard. £7

In 2023 the weather defeated us on this one! Our walk takes us to one of the icons of the North Pennines, and one no serious walker should miss. From Dufton village we climb steadily to over 600m through disused mine workings on very good tracks. Once the climbing is complete, we traverse Blackstone Edge past the remote Great Rundale Tarn. Please note this section of the route is over rough ground which will be boggy in places. There are spectacular views in every direction. Approaching High Cup Nick from the west provides a ‘wow’ moment. We follow this ravine, using the Pennine Way, to descend back to Dufton.

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Leave Station car park 9.30am. Start at Rukin Farm Car Park (GR: NY 892 012, What3Words: ///attending.sonic.drag) at 10.30am. 4.5 Miles. Moderate. £7

Our Discovery Day commences with a short walk from Keld to the head of Swaledale where we will look around the rich mining landscape in this part of the Dale. We will visit the interesting and well-preserved Low Plate dressing floor complex, not on rights of way, and see evidence of mining methods and a smelt mill. Returning to Keld we will visit Keld Resource Centre for a talk on the history of lead mining in the Dale, and mining processes.  Please note that whilst a short walk, the paths, particularly in Swinnergill, are steep and narrow in places.

Supported by: Keld Resource Centre

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Leave Station car park 9.30am. Start in Finghall (Final parking arrangements will be confirmed to participants) at 10.00am. 9 Miles. Moderate. £7

Our walk, at the easier end of our moderate grading, takes us across field paths to the reservoir at Thornton Steward before we head east towards Newton Le Willows. There is some road walking along quiet byways on this part of the walk. Crossing the line of the Wensleydale Railway we follow a pleasant valley path alongside Leeming Beck before recrossing the tracks for our return to Finghall. There are good open views of Lower Wensleydale throughout.

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Start at the Bus Shelter in Leyburn Marketplace (Honesty Box Parking) (GR: SE 112 904, What3Words: /// producing.coil.bandaged) at 10.15am. 4.5 Miles. Easy. Free just turn up on the day.

This walk is part of the Ramblers Wellbeing Walks programme. It provides fine views of lower Wensleydale and Pen Hill. It takes us along the limestone edge known locally as 'The Shawl', past Lady Agitha's Cave. We go as far as the old pit ropeway at Tullis Cote Farm and then through the fields before climbing back up to the edge and returning along The Shawl.

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The Station, Richmond DL10 4LD | 11:00am – midday | £8 | Café/restaurant, bookstall, disabled access

Joe Willis is an award-winning journalist. Formerly of The Northern Echo, but now the editor of his own local news service, Richmondshire Today, Joe has written stories which have been followed up by news organisations around the world. Born and raised in the Yorkshire Dales, he was perhaps the ideal candidate to write a guidebook on Swaledale for Richmond Tourist Information Centre. The problem for Joe and the TIC, is that he is used to knocking out 250-word articles rather than 80-odd pages of book, meaning the glacier which shaped the Pennines moved at a faster pace than the writing of this quirky guidebook did.

Sponsored by: Richmond Information Centre

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