FROM Wensleydale to Yorkshire Blue and Swaledale – the Yorkshire Dales’ many cheeses are to be celebrated in a new festival.

The event will run from Saturday, September 23 until Saturday, September 30 across the dales.

The first weekend will be staged at the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes, when there will be product tastings, cookery demonstrations, cheese-making and drink-pairing demonstrations over September 23 and 24.

The creamery recently opened a new “Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese Experience” following a £5m investment in the creamery and its visitor centre, which includes a new viewing gallery, touch screen information boards and cheese-making demonstrations.

There will then follow a further five days of events from Monday, September 25 to Friday, September 29 across the Yorkshire Dales, with restaurants, cafes, farms and attractions championing some of the locally made cheeses including Coverdale, Swaledale, Ribblesdale, Yorkshire Blue and Fine Fettle cheeses, as well as the associated preserves, chutneys and biscuits also created locally within the national park.

There will be guided walks and cycling tours in the surrounding countryside, which will trace the evolution of cheese-making in the region.

It is believed cheese-making was brought to the Yorkshire Dales in the 11th Century by monks who arrived from Normandy following the Norman invasion and established abbey estates in the dales.

Wensleydale Cheese was first made in 1150 by French Cistercian monks from the Roquefort region who built a monastery at Fos, then later Jervaulx in Lower Wensleydale.

From there the skills were passed on to local farmers, many of whom used their own recipes to make produce for local markets.

Now more than 40 different cheeses are produced in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Funding for the project has been secured from the Rural Development Programme for England, funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

The festival will run from 10am until 5pm on both Saturday, September 23 and Sunday, September 24.

It will be free to attend but a small charge will be made to participate in certain activities which will be bookable in advance.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority will be releasing further information on the festival and booking details nearer the time.

For updates visit its website; yorkshiredales.org.uk/visit-the-dales/cheese-festival-17