Skipton

Skipton means "sheep town", from the Old English sceap and tun, and it was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. In 1090 the Norman baron Robert de Romille built a wooden motte-and-bailey castle here, and in the 12th century William le Gros strengthened it with a stone keep against raids from Scotland. The castle raised Skipton from a poor dependent village to a burgh run by a reeve, and its protection drew families to settle around it in times of war.

In 1310 Edward II granted the castle to Robert Clifford, and it remained the Clifford family's principal seat until 1676; the High Corn Mill on Eller Beck, one of the oldest mills in North Yorkshire, dates to 1310. In the Civil War the castle held out against Cromwell's forces for three years, and was afterwards repaired rather than demolished. The town grew into a prosperous market for sheep and woollen goods.

In the 19th century Skipton became a small mill town, linked to the big cities by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and its Springs Branch, built to carry limestone from quarries near the castle. The market from its early years still survives, though sheep are now sold at the auction mart on the edge of town. From 1974 to 2023 Skipton was the seat of Craven District Council, abolished when North Yorkshire Council took over.

Skipton calls itself the Gateway to the Dales, and much of its life revolves around visitors heading into the hills, especially on market days. The town celebrates its origins at Skipton Sheep Day on the first Sunday in July, a heritage event on the high street with a petting zoo, shows and food stalls, and the June gala ends its procession in Aireville Park with live music, stalls and fireworks. At Christmas the high street closes to traffic for a market that brings in more than 50 extra stallholders.

The Town Hall stages music, theatre, comedy, markets and fairs and houses the Craven Museum & Gallery, shortlisted for the Art Fund Museum of the Year award in 2024. Skipton Little Theatre on Clifford Street seats about 70 and is run by a not-for-profit group, and Drystone Radio and My Skipton Radio broadcast locally. A free parkrun is held every week in Aireville Park.

The town has repeatedly been named one of the best and happiest places to live in the country, in Rightmove's Happy at Home Index in 2020 and 2023 and by The Sunday Times in 2024, and local pride reflects it.

About 15,000 people lived in Skipton at the 2021 census. It is the nearest and largest town to a large part of the Dales, so shops, services and the market serve a wide farming hinterland, and tourism brings crowds on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, the market days.

It is also a commuter town: direct trains run to Leeds, Bradford and London. Livestock auctions continue at the mart on the western edge of town, keeping farming visible in daily life. One of the larger employers is the Skipton Building Society, founded in the town, with its subsidiary companies. The bypass that opened in 1981 and 1982 greatly reduced journey times to the Dales. In December 2022 Craven Arts reopened the former parish church school on Otley Street as an arts venue.

Daily rhythm follows the market and the seasons: quiet weekday mornings, market-day crowds and summer weekends when walkers and day-trippers arrive by train from Leeds and Bradford. Since 2023 the town has been governed by North Yorkshire Council, and the parliamentary seat is held by Sir Julian Smith.

Skipton's food is that of the Dales and of Yorkshire. Wensleydale cheese, a supple, crumbly cheese first made commercially at Hawes, further up the Dales, is often eaten with fruit cake. The Yorkshire pudding, a batter baked in hot fat, comes with the Sunday roast in the town's pubs.

The market on the high street sells local produce alongside general goods, and the pubs and tea rooms of the high street and the canal basin feed the walkers and day-trippers who pass through on their way into the hills. The surrounding Craven countryside is grazing land for sheep and cattle — in the 19th century it produced the Craven Heifer, a famously vast cow.

Sweet things follow the county's traditions: parkin, a ginger cake made with oatmeal and treacle and eaten around Bonfire Night, and Yorkshire curd tart. Beer is part of the Dales' identity, with Theakston and Black Sheep brewing at Masham and Timothy Taylor at Keighley, down the Aire valley.