More interesting are the dry stone walls that cut through them, often garlanded on their dark, shaded sides with dripping sponges of burnt green mosses.We followed a route along the riverbank, heading towards Airton, with views of Pennine high spots like Cracoe Fell and Rylstone Fell way out to the east. Then it was an up-slope pull across billiard-table, sheep-nibbled fields past Crag Laithe, the walk's high point - only in the physical sense - at around 600 feet, and on down slope to the river Aire.Underfoot, the fields are as flower-rich as Astroturf, having been fertilised and Swaledale-eaten until only dye-green grasses survive. The Pennine Way runs through both villages and, for ease, we had happily followed its acorn signs.At first it took us along a small road, where we were joined by locals enthusiastically walking their dogs. Hidden well away from the German bombers, up here," he added before continuing his walk, out from the hollow which envelopes the mill on this shaded riverbank and into the thin sun.We had walked to Airton from much less picturesque Gargrave, a larger village on the busy A65 Harrogate to Kendal road, five miles or so nearer Skipton. In the village of Airton, 10 miles or so northwest of Skipton in North Yorkshire, the occupants of this newly elegant mill have the comforting sound of the little river Aire bubbling past outside their limestone walls - and the comforting knowledge that their rooms were well disinfected before they took up residence. "The old bell on the roof used to be rung to get the workers to the mill," comments a kindly Airton man we happen to meet on the narrow stone bridge at the bottom of the village "The mill was used for producing Dettol in the war.

A mill that has been converted to a Dettol factory and then, more recently, into a set of spiffing apartments, is a little more unusual, however. Admission is pounds 2 adult, pounds 1 child or pounds 5.50 for a family ticket. In some parts of the Yorkshire countryside, it never seems long before a box-shaped, one-time mill looms into view. The garden and park are open daily from 11am-4pm during Jan-March and October-Dec and 10am-5pm from April-Sept. Admission to the castle, garden and park is free for National Trust members, otherwise pounds 5.20 for adults, pounds 2.70 for children or pounds 13.40 for a family ticket (two adults, three children).The Water Mill (01643 821759) is open from 10.30-5pm every day except Saturday from April to October, except July-August, when it opens on Saturdays too. The castle (01643 821314) is open from 30 March-1 November, everyday except Thursday and Friday.

When you stand and listen to the winnowing machine creaking and grinding and the soporific clanking of iron on iron, it takes almost all the imagination you have left to believe that the mill is powered merely by water.Dunster is just off the A39 near Minehead in Somerset. After a day out, admiring the castle and its ghosts and walking off cream teas in town, you are brought back down to earth with a bang and a thump and a clatter with the hefty old machinery at work in the mill. Much more recent are the newly established town gardens, imaginatively planted for adults, but with plenty of grass for the kids to romp around on.A lovely stroll away, whether ambling through the village streets and along the riverside, or approached briskly from the castle, is the town's water mill. The site it now stands on was mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, but the present mill dates only from the 18th century.In 1979 it was brought back from the brink of dereliction by the Capp family, and these days the family operates the mill once more as a business, producing the wholewheat stoneground flour that is sold in the adjoining shop.Upstairs is a fascinating collection of old agricultural machinery with nostalgic names like bitter churn, cake crusher, oat roller and horse-drawn sham, but down below is where the action takes place. Here, the houses of once-affluent wool merchants dominate the high street and contrast sharply with the more humble medieval cottages in West Street that once housed the woollen workers.Like a strange spaceship bandstand, the circular yarn market that was built by one of the Luttrells in 1609 to sell Dunster cloth hovers at one end of the high street. Headed by stone plaques, each one bears the name of a well- loved family dog - or a solitary budgerigar.In the other direction, the gardens lead straight into the village, its streets merging seamlessly into the castle grounds.