Cavendish Pavilion, Bolton Abbey

It’s hard to match Wharfedale for sublime beauty and Bolton Abbey is the jewel with its church, Abbey ruins, a wide sweep of the river Wharfe and the 57 stepping stones that cross it. It’s all part of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire’s mighty Yorkshire estate and, as you might expect, it’s kept in immaculate order.

It costs a stiff £15 to drive down into Sandholme and the Cavendish Pavilion and park your car by the Wharfe – stiff but worth it if you make a day of it with a picnic by the river or use it as the starting point for any number of walks among the 80 miles of footpaths that extend to Barden Moor and Simon’s Seat.

The Cavendish Pavilion is worth stopping off for lunch, afternoon tea or the  obligatory ice cream, especially since its make-over. New lights, flooring, state of the art loos. With pleasant outdoor furniture on the terrace and lots of blonde wood inside, it feels spacious and cool in every sense.

It remains a self-service café, selling sandwiches, snacks, salads and hot dishes. A central island has a fine display of cakes: carrot cake, coffee cake and Eccles cakes while a low level table has cornflake crispies, caramel rice crispy cakes, iced fairy cakes and lovely Lottie Shaw ginger bread biscuits. Now who could these be for?