Richard Foster enjoys a break in one of England's greenest dales, complete with gothic legends.

DENTDALE is the most lush and green of the Yorkshire Dales with its abundance of trees and hedges.

It is also off the well-beaten tourist track, so it still relies on stock farming for its livelihood.

Hill farmers in the area have been hit by the foot-and-mouth epidemic followed by a shake-up of farm subsidies and the rise in fuel costs. Diversification is the "buzzword" as farmers and their families seek new sources of income to help them eke out a living.

Two of the most popular are bed-and-breakfast accommodation and self-catering farm cottages. I sampled both on a recent visit to Dentdale.

Dent, with its cobbled streets and whitewashed houses, is a little gem of a village steeped in history and lore.

Dent's main street is dominated by a large monolith of Shap granite, which serves as a memorial to the village's most famous son. Adam Sedgwick was born in 1785, the son of the local vicar. He attended Sedbergh School and Cambridge University, becoming one of the founders of the modern science of geology.

Dent boasts its own vampire legend. George Hodgson enjoyed rude health until he died in 1715 at the age of 94. His longevity and long canine teeth sparked rumours of Hodgson being a vampire who had made a pact with the Devil. He was buried in a far corner of the churchyard. Afterwards several people swore they had seen him walking by moonlight. After the mysterious deaths of some of these witnesses, Hodgson's body was exhumed to reveal pink flesh plus hair and nails that were still growing. The corpse was reburied by the church porch with a stake through its heart. Well, there is a grave by the church porch, but the hole in the stone looks like it was made for a railing rather than a stake. Poor George was probably guilty of nothing more than old age at a time when life was hard, brutish and short.

Dent is reputed to have connections with the Bronte sisters, and two houses in the dale, High Hall and Whernside Manor, may have been the models for Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.

Whernside Manor has been given a new lease of life as a stylish bed-and-breakfast establishment - thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of its owners, Elaine and Jerry Johnson, who have been restoring the majestic building over the last 11 years.

Whernside Manor is about 300 years old and was extended in the 18th century by the Sill family from Liverpool who wanted an elegant country residence. A family of slave traders, they kept 25 slaves to work the house and grounds.

In the 20th century Whernside Manor became a caving centre for the Scout Movement and the Yorkshire Dales National Park before the Army took it over as a training centre. Apparently, it served as a "safe house" for the author Salman Rushdie after a death sentence was issued against him in 1989 because of his novel The Satanic Verses by Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

A short drive from Dent is the historic market town of Sedbergh, dwarfed by the mighty Howgill fells and famed for its public school, founded in 1525. Old boys include the international rugby union players Will Carling and Will Greenwood and Simon Beaufoy, screenwriter of the hit film The Full Monty.

Sedbergh is a book-lovers' paradise with an assortment of shops that specialise in selling hard-to-find second-hand volumes. Such is its expertise, that it has earned the title "book town".

The journey back to York took us to Hawes, where a visit to the Wensleydale cheese centre is a must for all fans of the popular animated characters Wallace and Gromit, whose new film, Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, is released this week.

After sampling the cheese, walk to the neighbouring village of Hardraw, which is Old English for "shepherd's dwelling", and view Hardraw Force where Hearne Beck plunges nearly 100ft into the deep ghyll below. It is well worth paying the £2 admission charge at the bar of the stone-flagged Green Dragon pub to see the waterfall, which was painted by the artist JMW Turner.

Fact File

Richard Foster spent one night at Willans, a farmhouse cottage on a working beef and sheep hill farm overlooked by Whernside, one of the Pennine's highest peaks. It sleeps seven. Details from Kath Bentham, of Willans, Deepdale, Dent, Sedbergh, Cumbria LA10 5QZ. Tel: 015396 25285. Email: KathBentham@hotmail.com

www.cottageguide.co.uk/williams

Richard also spent a night at Whernside Manor, which offers bed-and-breakfast accommodation in a grade two listed Georgian house.

Details from Elaine Johnson, Whernside Manor, Dent, Sedbergh, Cumbria LA10 5RE. Tel: 015396 25213

Website: www.whernsidemanor.com

Updated: 10:25 Saturday, October 08, 2005