Aireville Park is only a short
walk from Skipton town centre along the Leeds and Liverpool
canal. There are plenty of car parks in Skipton, or you can
let the train take the strain - the railway station is just
across the road from the Park's southern entrance.
Another option would be to find the cache after a visit to
Craven Swimming Pool or after using the Park's 14 hole Pitch and
Putt course - there is plenty of car parking, only a short stroll
from the cache location.
Aireville Park originally formed the grounds of a large house,
Aireville Grange, that was built in 1837 for the local solicitor,
Henry Alecock. In 1869 Alecock died and the house and grounds were
bought by local mill owner, John Bonney Dewhurst. The property
remained in the ownership of the same family as a private home and
gardens until during the Second World War, when Aireville Grange
was requisitioned by the War Department. The parkland was used for
training purposes by the armed forces.
After the War, the house was taken over by West Yorkshire County
Council Education Authority and with several extensions to the
original building, it became Aireville County Secondary School in
1958. The grounds were bought by the town from the Dewhurst family
and opened to the public. As well as providing plenty of leisure
amenities to the local community, Aireville Park is the home of
Skipton Gala every June.
The cache is a 1.4 litre Lock & Lock box. It contains a log
book and pencil and other items including a Yorkshire-English
dictionary, Skipton keyring, Skipton town map, fridge magnet,
badges, bubbles, geocaching wristband and monster finger puppet.
There is a Cache In-Trash Out plastic bag and for the first to find
geocacher, a prize of an un-activated travel bug.
Please take care and exercise stealth while looking for and
replacing the cache. It is located near an area of important
habitat for wildlife and is not far from the path. It is also
important that the cache is well hidden when you replace it so that
it doesn't get muggled by any of the many visitors to the Park.
This is the first geocache that I have hidden, so I hope you
enjoy it and I look forward to reading your logs and looking at
your images. Happy caching!