WHAT TO DO

Brontë Waterfalls and Wuthering Heights Walk: This easy-to-moderate (though often very slippery) hike begins in Haworth, where you can pick up a map at the tourist office on the main street. You'll check out the waterfalls and moorland that inspired many of the Brontë sisters' writings and climb to Top Withens, where a ruin is thought to have inspired the setting in Wuthering Heights.

Brontë Parsonage Museum: Owned and maintained by the Brontë Society, this pleasant little museum in Haworth is based in the house where the literary sisters spent most of their lives. Includes many family paintings and letters written by the sisters (www.bronte.org.uk).

Where to stay

The Old White Lion Inn, a 300-year-old "coaching inn," is steps from the Brontë Parsonage Museum and right at the top of the cobbled Haworth Main Street. It's not luxurious, but clean, friendly and family-run with a good restaurant and bar in the lobby (www.oldwhitelionhotel.com).

Where to eat

Though also a hotel, Weavers Restaurant in Haworth is best-known for its food, which concentrates on local ingredients and displays a surprisingly light touch for this part of Yorkshire. The dining room is charming and eclectic, the staff cheery, and you leave feeling that you've done as well as if you'd sprung for one of the county's more famous Michelin-star eateries (www.weaversmallhotel.co.uk).

The Grouse Inn in Oldfield is the place for locally caught game, and the menu gives fair warning that, since things are so fresh, you might find a stray piece of lead shot in with your meal. In fact, no one I was with lost a tooth, and all raved about the traditional dishes and creamy Yorkshire ales (www.grouse-inn.co.uk).

More information

• For Brontë-related info: www.visitbrontecountry.com.

• General tourist information: www.yorkshire.com and www.visitengland.com.

PETER MANDEL