Yorkshire Dales connections to Sherlock Holmes

Not many people know that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle spent much of his young life in Yorkshire and many of his characters and locations were drawn from this area as well. For example Masongill Hall which is supposed to be the inspiration for the Hound of the Baskervilles is located here. It was also the estate which owned the cottage rented by Conan-Doyle's mother so it was a location he knew well. Masongill is a small village near Ingleton which was where his originally Scottish mother moved to, to  be near Dr Bryan Waller who had rented a room from them in Edinburgh. Conan Doyle's father was committed to an asylum in 1883/4 for alcoholism and epilepsy which at that time meant his mother not even if she had wanted to divorce him. Therefore it may have been that she had a relationship with Dr Waller and rumours abounded that she was seen crossing the lawns in the early hours, however these are nothing but rumours and local gossip. While Conan Doyle visited his mother in Yorkshire many times and wrote countless letters to his mother over the years describing activities he had done and enjoyed for example he was a keen golfer. He apparently had a tempestuous relationship with Dr Waller as in one letter he talks about how he hit him in a fight though eventually they seem to have put their differences aside as he was best man at Conan Doyle's wedding. It is a well know fact that Conan Doyle married his first wife Louisa Hawkins at the nearby St Oswald's church in Thornton in Lonsdale, in the porch there is a framed copy of the certificate dated 1885 and you can buy copies for 50p.
It is also speculated that the name for his famous detective was inspired by a visit to Ingleton where he played golf at Park Foot Farm the vicar of this parish was T.D. Sherlock this was just prior to his publication of "A Study in Scarlet" in 1877. There is also a plaque in the church marking the death of the vicar's brother who was struck by lightening at Ingleton Station. However on the matter of Sherlock's first name in his letters Conan Doyle often mentions the fact that he never met the physician Oliver Wendell Holmes a man he had a great deal of respect for and so may have immortalised him in his work.
All of these locations are a short drive from Harrogate and can easily be pared with othe literary activities for example visiting the home of the Bronte's in Howarth.
http://www.smallhotelharrogate.co.uk/