If you have ever fancied giving off roading driving a go, the Land Rover Experience Yorkshire is the place for you to try. Open to the public with a variety of different experiences to try, all new Land Rover + Range Rover owners are given a days off roading tuition to help them get the most out of their new motor.
Back in March I picked my first ever Range Rover. He’s called Edward and he’s quite possibly my favourite car to date. I’m not a stranger to the Land Rover brand, the husband has had Land Rovers before and both my parents have had the full line up of the Land Rover family from early Defenders, Series 2, Freelander, Ranger Rover and a Discovery. My Mam toddles round in her Discovery – we have arguments daily about how to heighten the drivers seat.
A casual Mother Daughter day out…..
Having attended the Land Rover Experience Yorkshire day back in 2014 at their previous home (you can read the review HERE), we were excited to try out the all new custom built venue at Yellison Barns on the Broughton Hall Estate, Skipton. Built in to rolling hills of Yorkshire we were in for an absolute treat. There’s dedicated accommodation available on site if you are travelling from. The staff are all upbeat and helpful and I have to say I was very pleased to see female instructors out there kicking ass too!
The sleek barn conversion that Land Rover Experience Yorkshire calls home houses a very welcoming guest area for coffees and snacks, a corporate facility for meetings and team building as well as a workshop area. The pride of the guest area is an iconic Land Rover, front and centre to greet you. With the work horses lined up outside, check in is simple and straight forward so you are soon relaxing with a cuppa prior to your day in the mud.
Our host for the day was Andy J and he got through the official bumpf and out in to our car to start the day. As we have off roaded before and taken part in a Land Rover Experience Yorkshire day before, we opted out of the demo drive and Andy had us cracking on with hill climbs.
The instruction was clear and concise and geared to my specific model of car. It’s a huge leap of faith to trust the engineering of your Range Rover to take your feet off the pedals completely while letting the car roll you backwards down a steep gravel hill using Hill Descent Control! The stepped hillocks were fun, only having 2 wheels on the ground at any 1 time!
As we were first off the blocks we enjoyed the course to ourselves for about 30 minutes until the other drivers caught up. Leaving the dry gravel hills behind, we hot footed it across the fields through a ford to an old railway line.
This was the most fun part. Tackling 500mm flood pools and deep gullies were our highlights but the railway sleepers were certainly fun – I’ll not spoil that for you! As we were first Paul got to take the Range Rover over the teeter totter, letting the weight and momentum of the car tip us forwards.
By the time we had both taken a whirl around the railway section, there was about 6 or 7 cars behind us in a queue waiting to get through the wet obstacles. I am so glad we managed to get there first as I would have been a bit bored in a traffic queue!
It’s a shame the group couldn’t be split up so half start on the wet and finish on the dry and vice versa as it would avoid the bottle necks on probably the narrowest part of the hole course!
Andy had us laughing and chatting throughout the whole experience and we learned a lot about what my car can do as Andy was informative but not boring. Our limits of off roading will be driving over farm tracks, fields and gravel roads but it’s good to know what to do if I need it. No point buying a 4×4 without knowing how to use it! We had a hell of a lot of fun
My top tip is to enter the Land Rover Experience Yorkshire from Carleton Lane if you aren’t comfortable about driving over muddy fields in your own car. Coming in from the A59 will take you across the Estate and it is not paved!