Robin hood falls is privately owned and known to everyone else as Hardraw Force.
As you can see when we arrived it was a raging torrent; high winds creating a huge area of mist, high winds and snow!
If you go in winter the toilets are not open, opening times are not what is advertised or even what you are told when you ring up either the pub or the telephone number for the visitor centre, after lots and lots of calls and answer machine messages that was!
Hardraw Force (OS grid ref: SD869917) is a waterfall on the Hardraw Beck in Hardraw Scar, a wooded ravine just outside the hamlet of Hardraw, 0.93 miles (1.5 km) north of the town of Hawes, Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales.The Pennine Way long distance footpath passes close by.
Comprising a single drop of 100 feet (30 m) from a rocky overhang, Hardraw Force is claimed to be England’s highest unbroken waterfall– at least discounting underground falls. (The underground waterfall inside nearby Gaping Gill on the western flank of Ingleborough has an unbroken fall of over 300 feet (91 m).)
Geologically, the bed of the river and plunge pool is shale; on top of that is sandstone and the top layer is carboniferous limestone.
Hardraw Scar (54.316°N 2.205°W) is a limestone gorge located behind the Green Dragon inn at Hardraw near Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales. It is a natural amphitheatre and in September is the site of an annual brass band entertainment contest.The contest attracts bands from all over the North of England and is a popular event amongst players and audiences alike.
The gorge is situated alongside the Pennine Way and also has an impressive waterfall, Hardraw Force, at the far end. Access to the gorge is via the nearby public house.
In 1899, a great flood came racing over the waterfall and into Hardraw itself, ruining buildings and uprooting coffins from the graveyard. The lip of the waterfall was demolished by the force of the water and the landowner at the time (Lord Wharncliffe) got his estate manager to repair the lip and it is now held together at the top by metal stakes.
Both J. M. W. Turner and William Wordsworth have visited the waterfall[and both men stayed at the Green Dragon Inn.The falls were used as a location in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, in the scene where Maid Marian catches Robin Hood bathing under a waterfall.
