The Dales Countryside Museum, housed in the old station yard next to the former Hawes railway station, covers the farming, pastoral, and domestic history of the Yorkshire Dales with unusual depth and care. The collection has tools, equipment, and domestic objects that illuminate how people actually lived and worked in these valleys over the past three centuries — lead mining, hand-knitting (Hawes was once a centre of commercial knitting), dairying, and the droving trade are all represented.
The museum is also the Yorkshire Dales National Park visitor centre, so you can pick up maps, trail information, and advice on walking in the area at the same time. The building has been thoughtfully restored, and the museum is free to enter. Allow an hour or two, particularly if you intend to walk in the dales afterwards and want to understand the landscape you're moving through.
Station Yard, Hawes.