Aysgarth Falls is a well-known beauty spot half a mile from the village of Aysgarth in Wensleydale.

There is an abundance of wildlife to be seen throughout the year. The River Ure contains brown trout, grayling and the native white-clawed crayfish. Salmon used to be seen jumping the falls.

In the summer the meadows attract many species of butterfly including commas, fritillary, ringlets, tortoiseshell, peacock, gatekeepers, and meadow browns – as well as dragonfly and damselfly.

There is a wide variety of birdlife at the waterside rock pools including wagtails, dippers, and the occasional kingfisher.

The surrounding fields and woodland contains chaffinchs, wagtails, siskins, robins, finches, tits, woodpecker and owls, and many other species of bird.

In the 1930s, the days before river pollution, local people as children told me they used to go to the middle falls at Aysgarth to watch the salmon leaping up the falls to spawn.
 

                                 the Smithson family and friends out for a paddle.