Our winter wonderland

8:40am Monday 21st December 2009 in

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A hundred years ago you were lucky if you got Christmas Day off work. Now for many of us, the holidays seem to start before Christmas Eve and goes on until the New Year. It’s great having such a long holiday, but finding things to do to amuse family and guests can be difficult.

We’re pretty lucky when you consider the extensive parks and countryside Yorkshire has to offer, where you can enjoy the fresh air and work up an appetite to finish off that last bit of turkey and plum pudding.

Just a hop, skip and a jump from the city centre is splendid Lister Park. Opened to the public in 1870, it is one of the region’s most popular recreational green spaces, attracting more than a million visitors a year. This is an ideal destination if you have pushchairs or a wheelchair.

No visit to the park would be complete without marvelling at the Mughal Water Gardens which combine terraces and paths, grassed areas and avenues of trees divided by water channels, cascades and pools in a traditional rectangular design. There’s a harmonious and restful atmosphere here that could be just what you need after a hectic festive season.

The St Ives Estate in Bingley is a country park with play area, lake, woodland walk and sculpture trail. Gifted to the people of Bingley by the Ferrand family in the 1920s, it has a wealth of beautiful and interesting features including Druids Altar, Baxter’s Pond, Betty’s and St Ives Lodges and the Old Manor House. There are a number of circular woodland walks around the estate offering rural tranquillity and an abundant variety of flora and fauna.

Turn into the sweeping driveway of East Riddlesden Hall, Keighley, and you’re a world away from the urban sprawl of pre-war semis surrounding this historic manor house.

Once the heart of Riddlesden’s agricultural estate, today the hall and its tranquil grounds form a haven of green.

Walking towards the house takes you past the lake, home to a lively gathering of ducks – so don’t forget to take some crusts.

The house itself isn’t open at the moment, but you can still enjoy a stroll around the walled formal garden with its lovely views of the Aire Valley, and the wild garden with its blend of tall grasses.

It isn’t obligatory to pop into Bettys Café when you go to Harlow Carr Gardens in Harrogate. However, there’s no doubt that it’s a pleasure when you visit the Royal Horticultural Society’s most northerly outpost to sit by the window with a pot of tea and look out on the visitors strolling around the cared-for landscape.

You may think there won’t be much to look at at this time of year, but you would be wrong. Winter and early spring bulbs such as snowdrops and early crocuses will be pushing through and carpeting the ground already, and with the beautifully-delicate flowers of hellebores, fragrant winter flowering shrubs along with interesting bark and stem colour, there’s lots to enjoy.

Oakwell Hall Country Park, in Birstall, is an attractive Elizabethan manor house, set out as a family home of the 1690s and surrounded by 110 acres of country park. The visitor centre includes a shop, cafe and the Discover Oakwell gallery. On Wednesday, December 30, you can meet ranger Amanda Walker outside the countryside centre at 1pm for a festive guided walk around the park, and while the event is free, booking is essential.

Roundhay Park, a former hunting area on the outskirts of Leeds, is the perfect place to relax and unwind. The park is 700 acres of greenery and stunning scenery with good quality footpaths around the lake and formal gardens.

There are also the scented gardens for the blind, the national plant collections and the Monet and Alhambra gardens.

Ogden Water, near Denholme, offers excellent opportunities to escape from the stresses and strains of Christmas, and many of the woodland and reservoir footpaths are suitable for disabled access.

Designated a Local Nature Reserve in 2003, the estate comprises a 34-acre reservoir enclosed by woodland with open moor beyond.

The heather uplands and peat moors form part of a Special Protection Area that is of international importance for breeding birds.

More than 250,000 people visit Ogden Water every year for walking, picnics, family outings and nature activities.

The Chevin, in Otley, is much more than the area around Surprise View where, from atop its 280 metres, you can marvel at the magnificent views of the surrounding countryside: from York in the east, to the hills beyond Skipton in the west.

Straying from the well-worn paths around the summit can lead to difficult walking conditions; but in other areas the varied topography lends itself to a number of pursuits – walks or horse riding through the gentle woods, enjoying a flask of coffee on the level grassy open areas at Danefield or, if you are fit enough, climbing on the grit at Caley Crags.

The medieval, timber-framed Shibden Hall in Halifax is open from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday, and noon to 4pm on Sunday. For more than 300 years, the hall was the home of the Lister family, but the house itself is even older, first built about 1420.

Many generations of people and their families have lived and worked here, and all have left their mark on its history with rooms and displays set out as if someone has just slipped out for a moment, and may return just after you have moved on.

There’s also a cluster of stone buildings in a pretty courtyard which reflect centuries-old crafts, and a splendid park which is best seen from the miniature railway running around the lake.