History & Heritage

A Yorkshire Dales Village Steeped in Centuries of Tradition

Burnsall is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the River Wharfe in Wharfedale, and is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The village is approximately 2 miles (3 km) south-east from Grassington. It has a parish church, a chapel, two hotels with restaurants, a public house, and a primary school.

Burnsall Primary School, a Grade II listed building, is in the original 1602 grammar school building, a legacy of William Craven of nearby Appletreewick.

There is a five-arched bridge over which the Dalesway passes. A path along the river from Burnsall to Hebden, 1 mile (2 km) to the north-west, dates to Viking times.

The historic parish of Burnsall occupied a large part of upper Wharfedale. It included the townships of Appletreewick, Bordley, Conistone with Kilnsey, Cracoe, Hartlington, Hetton, Rylstone and Thorpe, all of which became separate civil parishes in 1866. The parish was in Staincliffe Wapentake and in the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974, when it was transferred to North Yorkshire. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Craven, it is now administered by the unitary North Yorkshire Council.

The 2001 Census gave Burnsall parish a population of 112, decreasing to 110 at the 2011 census.

The ecclesiastical parish of Burnsall is in the Diocese of Leeds. St Wilfrid’s Church, Burnsall, a Grade I listed building, is almost entirely Perpendicular. It contains an 11th-century font carved with bird and beasts, twelve Anglo-Saxon sculpture fragments and a 14th-century alabaster panel depicting the Adoration of the Magi. The church-yard is entered from the main road by a lychgate.

Burnsall Methodist chapel is on the main road through the village and was once a thriving place of worship. It replaced an earlier chapel built nearby in 1840. The new chapel was designed by Skipton-based architect James Hartley and opened in 1902. It was built of coursed squared stone from Bingley with Guiseley stone dressings. Maintenance costs and a falling congregation meant that the chapel eventually had to close. It is now the home to thriving Hebden Lodge Nursery.

Burnsall is a centre for walking, trout fishing, picnics, and weddings. An annual feast day games in August includes amateur competitions and fell races. The village cricket pitch is below Burnsall Fell and is half enclosed by the river.