MALHAM SHOW AND SPORTS

Malham Show and Sports 

If you’ve never been to a traditional Dales ‘show’ then Malham Show and Sports is a great introduction. Perfectly compact, with uninterrupted views of the magnificent Malham Cove, you can quickly discover sheep shearing, dry stone walling, sheep dog trials, pony classes and a wide variety of rare and native breed cattle and sheep. 


Live music always seems to find a home at this show, whether before, during or after show day – and its ‘beer tent’ is a popular hub and the ideal place to relax and watch all the day’s activities, including the fell races. 


From the first show in 1907 until 1959, ‘Malhamdale Show and Sports’, as it was known then, was held at the nearby village of Airton. Although smaller, the sports were a main attraction throughout the north of England, especially the famous fell race. 


Former prominent sportsman John F Bell remembers the first time he competed at Malham Show in the early 1950s:

“It was early evening when I went and I’d never seen the fell or anything. As I went on the field the other runners were just coming out the tent, changed and ready to start. I hadn’t a bloody clue where I was going, not a clue. But they pointed out this Land Rover on top of the hill. You’d to go round by some flags, across the road, down the little hill, across the stream, then you’d to veer out to the left so that the public could see you going up the fell to the Land Rover where you turned. But since I’d just run on, with no warm up or anything, I thought we came back the same way – but you didn’t! You came straight down, which cut this loop out. 

“So I’m first to the top by 50-60 yards which is a long way, and clearly all the rest of them who’d come down from the Lake District are thinking ‘he’s local, he’ll know the way’, so they followed me. When I came out at the bottom just before the stream, low and behold, who was in front of me but Norman Stubbs, one of the top Dales runners at the time. He knew the way back. Just crossing the road I passed him and won the race. But it put the other lads back a place, some who’d travelled quite a distance. They were most upset about it!”

Still popular for its horse events, the early sports at Airton featured the future international show jumper and sporting character Harvey Smith as a competitor in the pony gymkhana events.


The show’s move to the outskirts of Malham village in 1960 meant a new course for the fell race. 

Former sportsman Roger Ingham MBE recalls the route that existed from 1960 to 2000:
“That first course when the show moved to Malham was like the Grand National, featuring around 28 walls which the runners had to navigate. There were two walls before you even got out of the show field and they were towering things, about six or seven foot high! And then you’d 14 going up the fell and 14 to get back over coming back….”

The current 2.5 mile course incorporates a 213m climb. Running out across the fields, all the races initially splash through Malham Beck – something the children love, with the senior race then encompassing two hills for the runners to climb – an exciting double header which makes a great visual spectacle the spectators watching from the show field.

“The current course is a 25 minute lung busting battle to the horizon and back, made even more challenging by running with saturated, leadened feet from the water crossing. It gives a great finish to the show day which is then usually topped off with a retreat to the bar.” 

Robert Hudson former winner and current organiser of Malham Show and Sports
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