This place is really quaint in a modern way! We went for tea in the Cafe at Stydd, which is like…read morenothing else I have ever seen. It is housed in a greenhouse full of plants, climbing vines and quirky interior design items, many of which are for sale. I am a herbal tea fan, they had a couple of interesting loose leaf herbal teas so I felt well catered for, and the flavour was a bit more complex again than your usual Pukka-brand tea. We didn't need any food, but the food menu looked OK. On the specials board, soup of the day was watercress. Dessert special was treacle and strawberry tart, which according to the waitress was a treacle tart with strawberry jam on top - didn't feel I needed that much sugar in my life! The waitresses were all friendly local lasses and everything seemed to be running smoothly. There are also a dozen cabins in the grounds which house a variety of artisan craft and food businesses. And there is a huge marquee with a wooden floor available as a wedding venue. If you are trying to impress someone who likes rural quirk, defintely bring them here.

This shop is so very exciting from the outside. A brief wander past the window, most especially at…read moredusk, and it shines out like the north star - a beacon of shiny! Inside it is packed with all kinds of ornaments and gift items, including some awesome vintage styled wire frame candle holder type lampshades, cute garden ornament animals and beautiful vintage style birdcages. I don't even know why I want a quirky birdcage, but I do, and Leaves and Linen stocks lots of them! I think they'd make a great jewellery and scarf holder, certainly it would look really funky, but perhaps for the more experimental person even a great flower pot holder! As well as this there are flowers, cards, linens, throws, terracotta and many other troves of gifts and such inside. Apparently all of the stock is hand picked by the owner from all over the world and this personalised sense of style is apparent throughout. Everything you could want for the home and garden are within and there is brilliant advice on offer too for throwing about ideas. For the shiny obsessed magpies out there this is a delightful shop. For the patient-but-gloomy-disinterested boyfriends, not so much apparently...

Another shop selling dangly wind chimes in Ilkley! Leaves and Linens is the kind of place you can…read morefind a gift for your mother or grandma as they sell floral tea towels, oven gloves, flower, mugs, and candles. The whole shop is nearly entirely filled with beautiful, colourful flowers but I was disappointed to find they were all fake, after a brief period of amazement! Oh well, they last longer, right? There are real, alive flower outside the shop. The man working there was eager to be of help then politely left me to look around when I said I was 'just looking'.

Not only a garden centre but also a nice place for a day out. There's a playground for the kids,…read moreand a lovely cafe, but best of all is the Birds of Prey centre. A must if you want to see something exciting! Take you old bread too for the ducks at the lake. The garden center itself is pretty goo, especially for seasonal things. There's also a pet shop with a good range of tropical fish.

TL;DR - A gardener's delight. Huge choice and incredibly low prices…read more Officially called "Pole Green Nurseries", but everyone I know seems to call this place "Brennan's". This place is an absolute delight. There's a car park on site, but from the road you can't really appreciate how much there is here. The main building has lots of plant food, pots and containers, ornaments and house plants. Then behind this you'll find a vast array of greenhouses filled with lots of plants - I'm particularly fond of all the fruit, vegetables and herbs they have for sale. I've had several tomato plants from here and they've all produced tremendous amounts of fruit. Then behind this is a huge outside area with all kinds of plants and you'll even find a variety of trees for sale, ranging from fruit trees and conifers to more exotic things like monkey puzzle trees. This place doesn't have the fanciness of many modern garden centres today - no gift areas, or greeting cards, or kitchen areas - and there's no cafe or toilets. But they have more plants than you could possibly imagine, and the prices are incredibly low. A monkey puzzle tree for under £15! Tomato plants for 75p! There's so much here that even with the low prices I could spend a fortune!

Opulent Design is another of those quaint delights within Ilkley. It seems mostly to be a gift…read moreshop, although home wares feature heavily too. Inside it is literally like a magpie's dream, immediately to the left as you enter the door is a glass cabinet area filled with shiny - beautiful jewellery, necklaces, earrings and such, which had the air of an indie designer. The shop is literally packed with cabinets and tables of goodies, I was actually worried about knocking things over with my bag! As well jewellery there were games, pottery items, ceramics, wicker baskets, ornaments and all sorts of knick-knacks and exciting little bits. My favourite items worthy of noting were the little cloth owl and kitty purses, by 'Cotton Zoo' and a cat's bum tea-towel holder (honestly, that's what it is!) which, curiously, won 'gift of the year'! A seriously exciting and cute shop, well worth a peek.

As I walked into this shop I made a bit of a din by jangling all the wind chimes that hung above my…read morehead at the front of the shop. Opulent Designs is quite large for a gift shop and sells a strange but delightful mishmash of gifts, jewelry, cards and novelty items. The front is very colourful and clearly geared towards children with one wall full of toys. There is a lively feel to the place - The Beachboys were playing as I was browsing. I was intrigued by the table holding only 'The Beano' themed things, from note books to coasters to thermos flasks, having never seen anything quite like it. Further into the shop there is an area selling cosmetic gifts like little bath bombs in the shape of cakes and ice cream shower cream, in ice cream flavors - mint, vanilla and chocolate! There is also a wide range of jewelry and some smart silver picture frames on offer so Opulent Designs covers most bases when it comes to gift ideas from children to your Granny to your friend that is getting married and has things for all budgets!

A small independent garden centre with plenty to offer. On site theres a very reasonably priced…read morecafe with a whole heap of yummy cakes to go with morning tea. Theres a very comprehensively stocked craft shop, a home brew shop, a sweet shop, a school uniform suppliers with a range of Scout and Guiding uniforms and lots and lots of plants. They also stock a variety of gifts, gardening tools, bird feeders, fish, gravels, mulches and composts. Parking is plentiful.

My boyfriend and I happened upon the Heskin Hall Craft Center during our recent UK Road trip. It's…read moremuch larger than it appears from the outside and has many local crafts vendors. You could easily spend a few hours perusing the stalls. We are not really into crafts, but we did enjoy the market side of the building. Unfortunately, we had a big lunch shortly before finding Heskins and we were not ready for another meal. There were loads of food options that looked fantastic. Instead, we grabbed a snack for the road- locally made potato chips and lemonade. The Rose Lemonade was unique and delicious. We enjoyed looking at the chickens and cows!

Really friendly florists. They are so helpful. Whenever I go in the staff seem to be laughing and…read morehaving fun together which is really nice to see. The prices are fair too and good quality products.