Masham Essentials

The quintessential Dales town.

Located in the breathtakingly beautiful region of Lower Wensleydale, Masham (pronounced ‘Massam’) is famous for its family-run breweries, the idyllic and spacious market place at its centre and its sheer beauty at all times of the year. Lined with shops, cafés and great traditional pubs – the streets of Masham are the perfect place to while away an afternoon, allowing you time to discover it’s hidden treats and treasures.

A thriving community of artists

Masham has a number of gallery’s and creative centres, and its compact nature means nothing is more than a few minutes’ walk away. Every year Masham is home to hundreds of swifts, the wonderful bird that sounds the arrival of summer. Having made the long migration from Africa the swift spend their summer speeding around the pretty market place which they use as their own airborne racecourse. This has been celebrated with a collection of locally created sculptures that make up a trail around the town, available from the Masham Tourist Point.

The Big Sheep

The Masham Sheep Fair in September is a fantastic and quirky event that is exactly what it sounds like: a celebration of all things sheep and of the many different breeds. But it’s more than just an agricultural show, did you know you can race sheep? Well you can, and in Masham they do. You can see it here as well as many other great activities and stalls, filling the town’s market place for two days in September.

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