Burnsall is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
in the county of
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...
, England. It is situated on the
River Wharfe in
Wharfedale
Wharfedale ( ) is one of the Yorkshire Dales. It is situated at source in North Yorkshire and then flows into West Yorkshire and forms the upper valley of the River Wharfe. Towns and villages in Wharfedale (downstream, from west to east) includ ...
, and is in the
Yorkshire Dales
The Yorkshire Dales are a series of valleys, or Dale (landform), dales, in the Pennines, an Highland, upland range in England. They are mostly located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, but extend into C ...
National Park.

The village is approximately south-east from
Grassington. It has a parish church, a chapel, two hotels with restaurants, a
public house
A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
, and a primary school.
Burnsall Primary School, a Grade II
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
, 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, 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
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
of Burnsall is in the
Diocese of Leeds.
St Wilfrid's Church, Burnsall, a Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
, is almost entirely
Perpendicular
In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...
. It contains an 11th-century
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design.
For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...
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 is a centre for walking,
trout fishing, picnics, and weddings. An annual feast day games in August includes amateur competitions,
tug of war and
fell races.
The village cricket pitch is below Burnsall Fell and is half enclosed by the river.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Burnsall
References
External links
*
St Wilfrid's Church web site
{{authority control
Villages in North Yorkshire
Civil parishes in North Yorkshire
Wharfedale
Craven District