This place turned out to be a bit of a surprise – meant to be a Yorkshire stopping off point on a long car journey, we thought we would find a few rocks, a place to stretch our legs for half an hour and a cafe. That we did discover, but so much more – some of the most spectacular rock formations scattered over Brimham Moor – mind blowingly unreal and just not something you would ever expect to find in the English countryside.

Not far from Harrogate but a world away we found 50 acres of moorland with a weird collection of rock formations, sculpted by the wind, rain and ice these sandstone outcrops dominate the area. Part of the fun for us was spotting what the rock formations could be – they all have names. Son spotted the “Turtle” immediately, the Eagle and the Smartie Tube proved a little trickier to find.

The whole place is like a big outdoor 100% natural playground stuffed with obstacles to climb and explore and loads of space to roam – Son could hardly believe his eyes and set to climbing immediately. The absence of danger signs was very refreshing – quite the novelty these days having to use common sense and not rely on patronizing instructions to keep you alive.

Plenty of climbing and clambering for all of us followed by a spot of sitting back to enjoy the Yorkshire countryside spread out below – we all loved this place. There were some experienced climbers on the higher rocks with all the kit to check out too, if you wanted to see how the experts did it.

The rocks seem to go on forever, at the top of the hill we found Brimham House – a little visitor centre with bits and pieces about the history of the area and a small exhibition. Amazing views up here too – on a clear day you can see as far as York Minster (we couldn’t) but we did spy Menwith Hill US air base.