Yorkshire hotels collection

The limestone slabs capping Malham Cove, in the Yorkshire Dales, have been split by rain into blocks and fissures: the blocks are known as clints, the fissures as grykes, and ferns grow at the bottom, out of the wind. On the coast, the shale cliffs at Whitby yield jet, a fossil wood that was polished into black jewellery when Queen Victoria went into mourning. Around Wakefield, forced rhubarb spends the winter in dark sheds; it is picked by candlelight, and in the silence it can be heard creaking as it grows.