4- and 5-star hotels in Masham

Masham is a small town with an enormous market square, two independent breweries and the best cluster of good eating between Ripon and Wensleydale. By nine in the evening it is small-town quiet, the breweries' bars close early and the last bus has gone, so it suits people who want a low-effort base for the lower dale, Jervaulx, Hackfall and Ripon, and who are happy to drive twenty minutes for somewhere with more going on. It does not suit anyone hoping to walk out of the door onto a mountain: the fells start ten miles further west.

The places on this shortlist are not all in the town itself. Black Swan Inn, Firs Farm B&B, Host & Stay Green Willow and Host & Stay The Old Dairy carry Masham addresses, as does The Bay Horse on Silver Street and Gromit Cottage on Quaker Terrace. Others sit in the villages and countryside around it: The Bull Inn at West Tanfield, Lavender Cottage and Woodside Cottage at Grewelthorpe, Mickley and Swinton Park near Ripon, The Mews at Sutton Grange and Stonehaven Cottage at Bedale. Two are 5-star, the rest 4-star, and the styles run from an inn with a bar and restaurant to self-catering cottages with kitchens.

Getting there and around

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, and Leeds Bradford Airport is a little over an hour. 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. 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.

When to go

Best in autumn colour or bluebell season if Hackfall is the draw; the market square fills with stalls from mid-morning on market day, the one time Masham feels like a full-sized town. Evenings are quiet — the breweries' bars close early, with Black Sheep's bistro usually stopping food around 8.30pm — and the last bus has long gone, so plan on driving to reach anywhere livelier. One night is enough if you only came for the beer; two nights is right if you also want Jervaulx, Hackfall and Middleham.