Richmond Brewing Company, The Station, DL10 4LD | 7:30pm | £8 | Bar, disabled access.

Prior to the performances there will be an opportunity for people to participate in an open mic. Poetry or prose can be shared (max three poems or one short piece of prose: max time 5 mins per-person). Please email office@booksandboots.org to reserve a place with the open mic. Priority will be given to those who email in advance.

Henry Raby is a punk poet and gig promoter from York. His work has been described as playful, highly-charged, passionate and anarchic! He’s performed at music, arts and literature festivals across the UK. Henry has been published by Burning Eye Books and co-runs York spoken word organisation Say Owt.

Sarah Wimbush’s first poetry collection, Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands, (Bloodaxe, 2022) is packed with Yorkshire tales of childhood, colliery villages and Gypsies and Travellers. Sarah lives in Leeds and is a grateful recipient of a Northern Writers' Award.

Olivia Mulligan, or Liv as she is known, was born and bred in North Yorkshire. After completing a degree in Drama and Creative Writing in London, and a spell working in the city, she could no longer resist the call of the Yorkshire Dales! In March 2021 Liv was invited to be ‘Poet Laureate’ for a weekly slot on BBC Radio York.

Leave Station car park at 9.00am. Rendezvous at Reeth Village Green outside the Burgoyne Hotel (GR: SE 039 993, What3Words: ///richest.purist.newsprint) at 9.30am for private transport to Keld and our start. 11 miles. Hard. £12 (Includes the minibus transfer to Keld)

One of the iconic walks of England – or possibly the world - and yet it is not yet marked on OS Maps.  That may well change soon as the route is to become a National Trail. The high-level route from Keld to Reeth is quite a contrast to the valley route we visited for parts of last year’s Corpse Way walk. We pass through areas scarred by the remains of the lead mining industry. We walk via the lovely Kisdon Force to Crackpot Hall before gaining height up the valley of Swinner Gill (Please note there is a tricky path at this point). We can see lots of evidence of the lead mining heritage of the area as we climb onto the tops and make our way east across Melbecks Moor, descending Hard Level Gill to Surrender Bridge. Our route then takes us above the intake walls on the flank of Calver before we descend into Reeth to complete our walk.

Leave Station car park 9.00am.  Start at sheepfolds at junction of the Gilbert Lane Track with B6160 Bishopdale Road near Kidstones (GR: SD 943 803, What3Words: ///airbase.fluffed.vegans) at 10.00am. A discovery walk of around 5/6 Miles. Hard. £7

For the first of our Discovery Walks, that take in different aspects of landscape conservation and management, we will be repeating our visit to the upland moors and peat bogs of Upper Wharfedale. Please note that this day will focus on this aspect and will be of particular interest to those people interested in the life of the peat bog. Have you ever wondered what is under your feet, why peat bogs are important and increasingly in the news, and what makes a good or a bad bog? Join the Yorkshire Dales National Trust Ecologist and Rangers for a walk across Cray Moss and beyond. We’ll identify bog flora and indicators of bog health, and you’ll see first-hand why these environments are critical in the fight against climate change and lowland flooding. Please note this walk will largely be off-track, across open access bog and upland pasture. There may be hidden holes, tussocks, and the usual off-path hazards.

Supported by: The National Trust   

Leave Station car park 9.15am. Start at National Park Centre at Aysgarth Falls (charge applies) (GR: SE 012 888, What3Words: ///pillow.launched.midwinter) at 10.00am. 11 Miles. Moderate. £7

Our walk takes us to Aysgarth Upper Falls, an iconic viewpoint, and Aysgarth Church in its lovely setting, before heading east along the southern bank of the River Ure. After passing Aysgarth Middle and Lower Falls we follow pleasant field tracks to reach Redmire Falls. Leaving the river we climb, initially gently and then steeply, to reach the ruins of the Knights Templar Chapel, then head for the falls and village of West Burton. Field paths, involving some “ups and downs”, take us back to our starting point.

Swaledale Museum, Reeth, DL11 6TX | 1:00 pm for talk and visit of Museum followed by a walk of 0.5 miles around Reeth | followed by afternoon tea at the Burgoyne Hotel at 3:00pm | £20, includes Museum visit and tea| afternoon tea | bookstall | disabled access

May Sinclair (1863-1946) is considered by some as the ‘leading woman novelist between the death of George Eliot and the rise of Virginia Woolf’. However, few are aware of the importance of Swaledale to her life and work. Her heroines Mary Olivier and Gwendolen are intimately aware of the local landscape which reflects their psychological state and drives the novels.

This curator-led stroll takes you around Reeth to discover pivotal places featured in two of May’s novels, with readings and local context.

Sponsored by: The Burgoyne Hotel, Reeth

Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond DL10 4DW | 7:30pm | £15 from www.georgiantheatreroyal.co.uk  | Bar, bookstall, disabled access

Where better to enjoy the sensational true story of 18^th-century actress Letitia Sage than the Georgian Theatre Royal? Magnificent Mrs Sage brought va-va-voom to the balloon when she set out to be the first Englishwoman to fly in 1785.

With more hilarious twists than a hit farce, a Georgian playwright could not have given the real-life Mrs Sage balloon show a better plot. Did the daredevil diva really start the Mile High Club?

Join Sharon Wright, author of The Lost History of The Lady Aeronauts and actress Abigail Halley as Mrs Sage to find out!

Suitable for age 16+

Leave Station car park at 9.00am. Start at the top end of Milburn Village Green outside the Village School (GR: NY 656 294, What3Words: ///occupiers.space.refusals ) at 10.15am. 13.5 Miles.2,700 feet of climbing. Hard. £7

Cross Fell (893 m) is the highest fell on The Pennine Way and many will know its smaller neighbour Great Dunn Fell with its 'Golf Ball' visible from the A66. We set off across farmland passing Kirkland Hall before climbing up the steep flanks of Cross Fell. Views can be spectacular, with fells all around you. We pass the source of the River Tees on the way to the two Dun Fells and the radar station, before we descend past the disused Silverband mine and return to Milburn crossing the 'Crowdundle Beck'.

Leave Station car park at 9.15am. Start Langthwaite car park (charges) (GR: NZ 005 023, What3Words: ///ticket.until.yummy) at 10.00am. 7 Miles. Moderate but with one very strenuous climb. £7

We repeat our successful walk of last year, led by a member of the team at the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust. The second of our Discovery Walks will include an opportunity to see how the Trust is working on a project to implement natural flood management interventions, and we will learn how these will assist in an area of the Dales that was badly affected by the floods of 2019. From Langthwaite we go downstream alongside Arkle Beck. There will be a steep climb up Fremington Edge, walking west, down again and through the delightfully named hamlet of Booze before returning to Langthwaite. Whilst mainly “moderate” please note there is one very steep climb which will be taken at a pace to suit the party.

Supported by: The Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust   

Leave Station car park 9.15am. Start Greta Bridge roadside parking by the bridge (GR: NZ 086 132, What3Words: ///rollover.clutches.mixture) at 9.45am. 6.5 Miles. Easy. £15 to include the guided tour of Rokeby Park

We are pleased to repeat this sell-out walk from 2022. The history of the Rokeby Estate, and the families who have lived there, is fascinating – and links to a number of important places that we will visit on our walk.  Starting at Greta Bridge we will learn about the roman settlement and fort that existed there alongside the old roman road.  We will walk into the Rokeby Estate and learn about the history of Mortham Tower. We will share the connections to Sir Walter Scott and JMW Turner and the romantic setting of Waters Meet. We walk alongside a delightful, wooded stretch of the River Tees to Egglestone Abbey. Returning to Rokeby Park, the main part of the afternoon will be taken up by a guided tour of the house and the fascinating history of the families who have lived there. We will walk back to Greta Bridge through landscaped grounds alongside the Greta and then along the carriageway that led to the house in times gone by, emerging at the old gatehouse in time to visit the Morritt Arms and hear about further links to the history of the Estate, and a chance to see Gilroy’s famous wall mural. There will be time for refreshments. With the walk and visit this will be a full day – and you are sure to learn something new.  A guide from Rokeby Park will be with us all day and can tell us about the connections between the landscape and the history of the estate.

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

For its first 20 years, the Yorkshire Dales National Park operated on a shoestring, with one warden in the south and one in the west. At its start in 1949 the concept was controversial, provoking hostility from local authorities and landowners. The Authority was created by new legislation in 1974. There was no precedent for the Authority and it had to balance local interests with the interests of conservation and the environment. The outbreak of foot and mouth in 2001 was a turning point. It brought farmers and the Authority’s officers closer together as they worked to overcome the impact of the disease. But in bringing tourism to a halt, it showed clearly how important visitors were for the local economy.

The Authority today is a much more complex and sophisticated organisation, drawing on the experience of its pioneers nearly 50 years ago. It has played and continues to play a central role in ensuring the unique character of the Yorkshire Dales is sustained for future generations.

Nigel Watson’s history of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority was commissioned to capture the recollections of many of the people who helped to establish the Authority in its early days.

Meet outside the Town Hall at 12.00 noon. Free but donations to the Richmond Mayor’s Charity most welcome.

Your costumed guide, a Richmond policeman of 1842, takes you for a walk back in time lasting just over one hour.

The Station, DL10 4LD | 2.00pm to 5.00pm | £50 (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 2000 years, but whether works from ancient China, Islamic bookbinding, or stately-home libraries, the principles are similar: papers are sewn together and secured within a protective casing. In this workshop led by local bookbinder, Delphine Ruston, you will make two books of your own to take away – a 3-hole pamphlet (or chap book), and a single-section, hardback notebook.

Tickets available from The Station

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

Fifty years before women were enfranchised, a legal loophole allowed up to a thousand women to vote in the general election of 1868. This surprising event occurred due to the feisty and single-minded Lydia Becker, the acknowledged, though unofficial, leader of the British women's suffrage movement in the later 19th century.

Brought up near Manchester, Lydia broke away from convention, remaining single and entering the sphere of men by engaging in politics. Lydia addressed innumerable audiences, not only on women's votes, but also on the position of wives, the abuse of women, and their rights at work. She kept countless supporters, all over Britain and beyond, abreast of the many campaigns for women's rights through her publication, the Women's Suffrage Journal.

Lydia influenced MPs in a way that no woman, and few men, had done before. In the 1860s the idea of women's suffrage was compared in the Commons to persuading dogs to dance. By the time of Lydia's death in 1890 there was a wide acceptance that the enfranchisement of women would happen. The torch was picked up by Lydia's younger colleague Millicent Fawcett, and by a woman she had inspired as a teenager, Emmeline Pankhurst: the rest is history.

Leave Station car park at 9.00am. Start at Rukin’s Farm campsite in Keld (parking charge, toilets available) (GR: NY 892 012, What3Words: ///chained.presuming.belief) at 10.00am. 11 Miles. Hard. £7

A chance to visit the iconic Tan Hill – and to sample a lunchtime drink at the highest pub in England! We start with a visit to the beautiful Kisdon Force where there will be time to take photographs. We then take the north bank of the Swale past Catrake Force and Currack Force before climbing north to the isolated Farmhouse of Ravenseat, as featured on so many TV programmes. The track is now over rough boggy moor to Robert Seat at 549m. We leave the lead mining history of Swaledale and Keld to see the remnants of coal mining as coal measures run just under our feet.  After our stop at Tan Hill we will return south via the Pennine Way to Keld.

Leave Station car park 9.15am. Start Bainbridge Village Green (GR: SD 933 902, What3Words: ///normal.sugar.unhappily ) at 10.00am. 9 Miles. Moderate/Hard. £7

This is one of the classic walks in the upper part of Wensleydale.  We start at Bainbridge and begin our steady climb up the first stretch of the Cam High Road, following the straight line of the old Roman Road as it climbs towards Whether Fell. We get good views to the north into Upper Wensleydale.   We head south to gain the ridge. Our steep descent into Bardale takes us through the villages of Marsett and Stalling Busk, nestled in the Dale, with great views of Semerwater,the largest natural lake in the County. We will walk alongside the lake and share some of the legends surrounding this place before walking back towards Bainbridge alongside the country’s shortest River – the Bain. As we return we will be able to see Brough Hill, the site of the Roman fort which stood here for over 300 years and explains the existence of the road on which we started our walk.

Leave Station car park 9.15am. Park at Demesnes (free car park, accessed via Gray Lane off Thorngate) (G R: NZ 050 160, What3Words: ///beeline.bring.speedily) at 10.00am. 7 Miles. Moderate. £7.

We follow the Teesdale Way for the first part of our walk, passing the Castle which gives the town its name. We cross the Tees and walk along its south bank to Pecknell Wood. Here, we pick up a bridleway that takes us into the lovely grounds of the Grade II* listed Lartington Hall.  Reaching the village of Lartington, we follow the course of a dismantled railway that once carried coal from the Durham coalfields to the Lancashire mills. An impressive bridge abutment marks the line’s crossing of Deepdale Beck, where we descend into Deepdale Wood. We follow the beck back to its confluence with the Tees, and then back into Barnard Castle, where our walk concludes with opportunities to visit the Castle, cafes, and the Bowes Museum.

Leave Station car park 9.30am. Start at Aske Stables DL10 5HQ (GR:NZ 180 037, What3Words: ///salad.ushering.listings) at 10.00am. 7 Miles. Easy. £7

This walk will take you into parts of Aske Park that are unknown to walkers using the public footpath through the Estate. For this Discovery Walk we will be accompanied by one of the Estate Forestry Team and will learn how the landscape is managed, with its mix of parkland, grazing and commercial woodland. The first part of the walk is through the private part of the estate. We will follow tracks until we reach High Coalsgarth at the half-way point. From here we return to the Hall using public footpaths returning across the racecourse and the golf club before regaining the Park. There will be time to look round the Stable Block business and retail centre. This includes a chocolatiers and coffee shop, Mocha, and for those in need of an improved night’s sleep – a visit to Kiss the Moon.

Start at pull-in on Hurgill Road out of Richmond just before the communications towers  (GR: NZ 139 024 , What3Words:  ///destined.plausible.research) at 10.00am. 4 Miles. Easy. Free just turn up on the day.  

A short walk, part of the national Ramblers Wellbeing Walks programme, takes us to the Memorial commemorating the legend of Willance and his horse, and on to the steep Deep Dale, where we descend to join the Coast-to-Coast path back through the woods towards Richmond. We then climb steadily back up, passing the old High Moor racecourse, to return to our starting point.

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

North Yorkshire-based author Jessica Redland writes emotional but uplifting stories of love, friendship, family and community. Her home in Scarborough inspired the creation of the fictional seaside town of Whitsborough Bay, the stunning countryside of the Yorkshire Wolds is the backdrop for the bestselling Hedgehog Hollow series, and a brand new series - Escape to the Lakes - transports readers to the beautiful Lake District. Richmond played an important part in Jessica's writing journey because she started her debut novel while managing a specialist teddy bear shop on Finkle Street. She’ll talk about her journey to publication, the themes of her novels - twenty so far - and the joys and challenges of being an author.

Sponsored by: The Station

Richmond School & Sixth Form College DL10 7BQ | 7:30pm | £10 | Refreshments, bookstall, disabled access.

Imagine you could walk back in time though 500 million years. What would you see, smell, hear and feel in the worlds before ours?

Watch the rhythm of pterosaurs in flight, smell the sulphurous boiling lakes, notice the iridescence of a beetle's shell scuttling across your path… in sixteen chapters in sixteen locations on earth, Halliday thrillingly walks us through the landscapes of our past, to the birthplace of humanity in Kenya and the flooding of the Mediterranean; to the making of Europe and the laying down of the root systems that have become our fossil fuels today;  showing us the worlds that survived, those that didn’t make it, and offering a new appreciation of the one that we are making now. Drawing on the latest science, Halliday’s encyclopaedic knowledge enriches this story of life on earth, told with all the drama of the best fiction or poetry.

Thomas is an Associate Research Fellow at the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Birmingham. He won the Hugh Miller Writing Competition in 2018.

Sponsored by: The Fleece Hotel