On Top of the Wold Tour
Wednesdays For groups of 6-12 people 5-10 hrs £65-145
*Please note that at present no more than 4 can be accommodated on each tour to enable social distancing.
This tour runs on every third Wednesday of the month and gives you a glimpse of Yorkshire’s best kept secret - the stunning but little known Yorkshire Wolds where steep dry valleys reach up to rolling farmland and huge skies. Here, farmers are using the Wolds landscape to create award-winning products.
Pick up from outside the Castle Museum in the Eye of York. All day parking is available nearby in the Castle and St George’s Field car parks. The pick-up point is a 15 minute walk from York railway station.
First stop is Yorkshire’s Food Capital, the market town of Malton, which enjoys an envious reputation as one of the foremost places for independent food shopping in the county.
The renowned Talbot Yard is the town’s artisan food hub and here you’ll visit Roots coffee shop to learn about the locally roasted coffee, baked goods and locally-reared meat. If you’re on the Classic Tour it’s here that you can pick up something for your lunch to eat on the move.
From here we head to Yorkshire Rapseseed Oil in Thixendale to see how cold-pressed extra virgin oil is made on the family farm. Yorkshire’s answer to olive oil is incredibly versatile with health- giving properties and if you’ve never used it before you’ll soon become a convert. All the rapeseed is grown locally on the Wolds’ chalk-based soil, giving the oil a unique taste and colour.
Next is a visit to Wold Top Brewery which is literally brewed ‘on top of the wold’ at a family farm. This really is a local venture for here the brewing family use barley grown on the farm and malted down the road, with water from their own borehole and power generated from their own windmills. You get to sample a range of their beers and eat your lunch - if on the Premium or De Luxe tours this is provided by Yorkshire Food Finder.
Three miles away is Yorkshire’s first whisky distillery, Spirit of Yorkshire at Hunmanby overlooking the sea. The whisky here is more local than almost all of that made in Scotland, as the wash from which they distill comes from Wold Top Brewery down the road, along with the locally grown and malted barley. You get a tour of the distillery, a chance to chat to the distiller and maybe the blender too, plus a taste of the amber nectar.
Classic and Premium tours then return to York where we say goodbye.
On the De Luxe tour we add in a visit to the award-winning Staal Smokehouse near Beverley, whose products feature on the menu at the Michelin-starred Pipe and Glass Inn nearby where you will enjoy a gourmet feast to crown off your day.
Here chef James Mackenzie and wife Kate have created a much sought after foodie destination and are regular and loyal users of all the produce you will have seen on your tour. You will get chance to meet and chat with James while he gives you an exclusive tour of his award- winning kitchen before you dine. Depending on how busy it is you may even get the chance to plate up your own main course, making the experience truly hands on and unique...
Once your gourmet experience is over we then return you to York.
*Please note that at present no more than 4 can be accommodated on each tour to enable social distancing.