The English Eye wishes you a peaceful and prosperous New Year 2013.

New Year’s Day should see the TEE cameras hauled on a long stomp around White Horse Hill, near Wantage, Berkshire, followed by a pub lunch with other keen walkers. There’ll be a photo report on that, especially if the weather is kind and gives us a break from the cloud and wet.

Meantime, here are shots taken during Christmas week, spent in the Yorkshire Dales. I spotted the nifty pub sign in the busy market town of Skipton, and since the world didn’t end in 2012, there’s no need to claim your rebate from the adroit management of The Woolly Sheep!

Below, handsome young beasts cool their heels in the fast-running stream that runs through the pretty Dales village of Malham. It’s a gateway to two Yorkshire treasures: Malham Cove, with its vertical face and limestone pavement, and Malham Tarn, the highest lake in England.

It’s a magical area, and I recommend a stay in one of the many pubs, small hotels or B&Bs, especially when we get free of winter time, with longer evenings and warmer weather. More on the Malham area in a few days, when the pix have all been edited.

Again, very best wishes for 2013, and to note that some new introductions are coming with the New Year, including downloadable art for you to print, and signed limited editions to order. More news on these as things develop.

The last image reveals a line of bare trees and a lone barn, all silhouetted against stormy skies after Boxing Day last week.

Well, that’s one legend anyway – apparently the Norse god Odin was riding his horse Sleipnir, when one of the giant beast’s hooves caught on the rocks, creating the horseshoe-shaped cove that’s the pride of Malham village .

A more scientific explanation is that Malham Cove was formed at the end of the last Ice Age, when a mighty waterfall thundered over the top. As the ice melted behind, the river retreated, instead carving underground passages through the limestone, leaving the near-dry rock face and valley of today.

The cove is less than a mile from the small village of Malham, population 150, and is an easy stroll through National Trust-owned land, some of it next to a pretty little beck flowing past. You pass attractive wooden signposts, and traditional NT signage before walking through lush fields toward the Cove.

On the day I went, these cows were grazing on the rich grass, and a curious bunch they turned out to be, wondering over to say hello, while staying out of stroking distance. Leaving the cows behind, and walking nearer the Cove, its sheer size becomes apparent, an impressive hunk of landscape, with a rock face some 80 m (260 ft) high. The walk from Malham follows what is technically a ‘dry‘ valley, but the beck bubbles cheerfully through, and an ancient flat-stone bridge links the banks at one point.

Behind the rock face is a complex system of limestone caves, many dating back 50,000 years or more. These are the reason why the valley below remains comparatively dry, for the caves swallow water from even the heaviest storms with ease.

I first saw Malham Cove not in Yorkshire, but as a teen, visiting the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) at Millbank, London. J.M.W. Turner’s huge painting hung there in its full glory, and I fell for his work there and then. Today, the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate is firmly on the ‘must visit’ list, even if Prince Charles and I probably agree on the appearance of the sternly plain-Jane building itself.

Harry Potter fans might like to know that parts of the 2009 movie ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1’ were filmed here. And talking of movies, last but not least, here’s an ultra-short trailer I shot with my last-model iPhone.

Summation
Hugely recommended, so go if you can, though you’re best to book a hotel or other accommodation beforehand if you plan to visit in a holiday period. Malham and the Cove are popular spots for visitors, and rightly so.

Turner painting courtesy Tate Britain.