This weekend we visited a small village nestled in the Yorkshire Dales known as Kettlewell. Put on the map by it’s very popular annual scarecrow festival!
I must admit I’ve been to this festival before, once upon a time many moons ago! This festival celebrates its 25 year anniversary this year. I can’t remember exactly when I last went but this narrows it down to between 20-25 years ago – Which is insane to me! Where does the time go?
It goes without saying that having not visited the village for at least 20 years – My memory doesn’t serve me well! But one thing I do remember is that me and my sisters loved this event as kids. It was one of our favourite childhood memories.
So we set off for Kettlewell with our 2 year old Hilda for her first ever Scarecrow Festival.
I don’t ever remember it being this big so we were hugely impressed with the amount of planning and coordination that has gone in to making the festival what it is today. So many volunteers and residents take part in making it a success and from the moment we arrived and looked at the little trail map I could tell it was going to be a fun day out!
There were scarecrows literally everywhere. You had to look around every bend to ensure you didn’t miss any! I loved that there were so many familiar faces aimed at children.
Hilda was quick to make friends with her new scarecrow buddies. It was adorable. I do wonder what she thinks must be going on when she sees these things.
I look forward to returning each year to see it change as she changes too.
This years theme was Magical creatures (I think). I got rid of my trail map entering it into a contest and that seems to be the only thing I had with the theme mentioned on it. Either way, there was lots of characters from cartoons, fairytales and Disney movies.
There was a lot of familiar faces even including Santa reminding us Christmas is just around the corner!
Some of the displays were so well put together. They must have taken so much planning and time to create. I tried to make a scarecrow last year for a festival my workplace was taking part in and it was so time consuming. I can only imagine how long some of these took to make!
Because we came towards the end of the festival, the winners had already been chosen. Every time I found a runner up I couldn’t believe there would be a better one! But I was always surprised at how good the next lot were. So many impressive ideas I don’t know how the judges choose their winners!
My personal favourite was the ‘Chicken’ aka Penguin from Wallace and Gromit. I am biased though as I have this exact poster as a pin badge on my handbag already. I love Feathers.
If I was to hazard a guess, i’d say Hilda’s favourite was one of the pirates but she did take a fondness to Little Red Riding Hood. I think it may have been because of the basket of chocolate though..
She also liked to call the Malificent scarecrow ‘mummy’. I don’t know what that says about me!!
One thing that I won’t have noticed as a kid but I can fully appreciate now – The sheer beauty of Kettlewell. It’s no secret that the Yorkshire Dales is stunning but this has got to be one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been. What a stunning village!
Even when looking at the scarecrows it was hard to miss the stunning backdrop. We enjoyed our lunch on a bench overlooking a beautiful view.
Kettlewell has a fair few pubs too and these looked to be thriving. Unfortunately gone are the days of our child having a midday nap so when given the choice she chose ice cream over beer… Probably for the best.
My first time eating Yorkshire Dales Farmhouse Ice Cream and the Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavour was one of the most delicious ice creams I’ve ever had. It’s no wonder the queue for this place never ends!
It was a busy day scarecrow hunting and the trail took far longer than we expected. Lots of walking and plenty to see but we enjoyed every minute of it!
We will absolutely return in 2026 and I hope the event continues to bloom and grow bringing people in from all over the UK!
~ Visited Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival in August 2025 ~
Join me on TikTok!
I’ve recently joined TikTok and I know i’m a bit late to the party but i’m still a newbie so bare with me! If you’d like to see more of Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival check out my videos below:
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