Near Kirkby Malzeard

Kirkby Malzeard is situated almost equidistant from Ripon and Masham and is the largest and principal village in the area with a population of about 800 people. It sits amid beautiful rolling countryside between Wensleydale and Nidderdale surrounded by tree-lined meadows and occasional cornfields. To the west pastures rise to the Pennine moorland and to the east the verdant Vales of Mowbray and York with the Hambleton Hills marking the edge of the North York Moors in the far distance.

The wide Main Street is the main thoroughfare but there are parallel back lanes to either side which has allowed the village to develop and spread over the years with a healthy diversity of dwellings from ancient to modern. It was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 and was granted a market charter in 1307 and markets were regularly held on a Monday until the early 1800s but the original market cross was pulled down by a local resident and then rebuilt by public subscription in 1866 and is now 

a listed monument. The modern community now supports a local pub, village store, butchers, tea-rooms, fish and chip shop and many other amenities. You may even be lucky enough to see the local Highside Sword Dancers who publically perform the ancient tradition in the village several times a year.

The Pennine beauty of Wensleydale and Nidderdale are close by, the country Mansion of Grantley Hall, and the woodlands of Hackfall are on the doorstep. The National Trust World Heritage Site of Fountains Abbey and the associated Studley Royal and Studley Park are only a few miles away as are the fantastic and often grotesque shapes of Brimham Rocks, a natural geological formation which covers over 50 acres of heather moorland. Ripon, Harrogate and York are all within easy driving distance as are all the western dales of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.