Tag: North York Moors

Exploring the North York Moors National Park

We were nearing the end of 2 weeks on the road visiting some of the National Parks of England. Concentrating on the North, we had so far spent time in the Peak District, the Yorkshire Moors, the Lake District and Northumberland National Parks and now it was back to Yorkshire to visit the second of its 2 National Parks, the North York Moors.

A flying visit to Whitley Bay en route to North York Moors National Park
  • Crossing Tyne Bridge…
  • and visiting the Angel of the North

Leaving Ashington, our base for Northumberland National Park, we travelled down the coast making an early morning stop north of the city of Newcastle at Whitley Bay where we took a brisk walk along the seafront. We then bypassed Newcastle City and crossed the Tyne Bridge and made a second stop, this time to see the famous Angel of the North sculpture up close (it was smaller than we thought it would be!).

Whitby views from the top of the 199 Steps

It was then time to continue on back to Yorkshire where we eventually passed a sign to say we were within the boundaries of the North York Moors National Park. We had decided to assign the afternoon to visiting the coastal area of the park, leaving the next day, our only full day in the park, to get out onto the moors. So with that in mind, we followed the road signs to the seaside town of Whitby.

Whitby Abbey
View of Whitby Abbey and church on the cliff top

Arriving at midday on a Sunday, we soon found ourselves in a queue of traffic into the town and into the harbour car parks. After a few loops of all the car parks in the area with no sign of any spaces becoming available any time soon, we decided to give up and head back out of town to the park and ride we had passed a mile or so out! Here, there were plenty of spaces available and,for £5 each, we got a return bus ticket into town.

It was the first time I had used public transport since the pandemic began but the buses were regular enough to be pretty quiet and it didn’t take long for them to reach the town centre.

The beach at Whitby

Whitby was busy enough that we felt the need to wear our face coverings in some parts of the town, mainly narrow streets that were like bottleneck, pushing people walking in every direction together into small spaces but once we got away from the main streets and harbour area, it was easier to socially distance and we felt much safer.

Whitby harbour

We followed signposts to Whitby Abbey, walking up the 199 Steps to the church grounds at the top and stopping there for a while to take in the views over the bay (and catch our breath!). Entrance to the Abbey was by pre-booked ticket only and we had decided not to go in but it was possible to see quite a bit of the Abbey building from outside.

Returning to the town, we got ice creams from Sprinkles Ice Cream Parlour then walked along the pier and down by the beach before catching the bus back to the car park and driving to check in at our hotel. As with the other National Parks we had visited, we would again be staying just outside of the park to keep the cost down, this time staying 2 nights at a Premier Inn near Middlesbrough.

Driving across the North York Moors
The Goathland Hotel aka The Aidensfield Arms

On day 2, we drove back into the park this time taking the scenic route driving along more narrow, steep roads, passing through the small town of Grosmont, across pretty heather covered moors and and eventually arriving at our destination of Goathland.

The ‘Aidensfield Stores’

Goathland is well known as the village which doubled as Aidensfield in 90s TV show ‘Heartbeat’ and the town continues to play on this connection keeping up a sign saying ‘The Aidensfield Arms’ on the side of The Goathland Hotel, and shops such as the Aidensfield Village Store still selling Heartbeat related souvenirs.

After parking up, we walked straight through the village past all the shops and cafes and headed down the road toward the Mallyan Hotel, dodging the many sheep roaming freely around the roads, pavements and grass verges everywhere!

Walking to Mallyan Falls

At the side of the Mallyan Hotel, is the trail head leading to Mallyan Falls. Taking a circular route, we followed the trail down lots of steps into a wooded area then along the river before scrambling over precariously balances rocks to finally see the waterfall come into view!

Views hiking from the waterfall back to Goathland
Stopping off in Beck Hole

Scrambling back over the rocks to the path, we then followed it alongside the river, up and down more steep steps and past some fields to the tiny village of Beck Hole where we stopped for a quick break next to the river before following the path for a long uphill walk back to Goathland.

After a walk around the village, we returned to the car just after midday and began our drive towards the south end of the park and the Hole of Horcrum. We parked at Saltergate car park from which there are sweeping views of the Hole of Horcrum. After taking lots of photos, we turned right and followed the path around the edge. From here it was possible to turn left and follow a path down into the hole or to continue around the edge. We continued straight on, crossing a stile onto a path that lead through Levisham Moor, surrounded by purple heather.

The Hole of Horcrum
Walking the moors along the perimeter of the Hole of Horcrum

While it is possible to do a complete loop of the Hole of Horcrum, we had only paid for 2 hours parking, not long enough to complete the 5 mile circular route, so after a while, we turned back and retraced our steps back to the car park.

Another view of the Hole of Horcrum

After lunch overlooking the Hole of Horcrum, we continued our drive through the park heading towards Pickering, then looping back north through the pretty riverside village of Hutton-le-Hole.

From here we continued to follow the road north as it opened out into beautiful hill top moorland, driving carefully to avoid the sheep milling around on the roadside or even in the road itself and stopping at pull in points to get out and enjoy the view.

Taking the scenic route to Danby through the moors
At the Danby National Park Centre

Our final stop of the day was in Danby at the National Park Visitor Centre. The centre was part gift shop and part interactive exhibition centre with displays outlining the history of the park. After having a look around, we took a stroll around its woodland walk area before returning to the car and waving goodbye to the North York Moors National Park.

It had been a fun 2 weeks road tripping around the north of England to visit a total of 5 National Parks and we found that they all had something special to offer and that maybe we should make more time in the future to spend time exploring what is really just on our doorstep!

Watch my adventures in the North York Moors here:

A UK National Parks Staycation

Like many people, I had big travel plans for this year, namely a 5-week mammoth USA road trip passing through California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah and Arizona visiting a variety of National Parks. Luckily, while our route was planned, we hadn’t got very far in the booking process with just our return flights to LA and our first 2 nights’ hotel accommodation booked by the time we went into lockdown. We put our planning on hold and thankfully, as it became more and more apparent that our trip had no chance of going ahead, our flights with Norwegian Airlines were cancelled and promptly fully refunded and we went ahead and cancelled our LA hotel reservation.

While travel to the USA was out of the question, as restrictions in the UK slowly began to be lifted, we started to wonder if a trip here would be a summer possibility. While I’ve extensively explored the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Italy and a range of European cities, there is very little of my own country I have spent time seeing in anywhere near as much detail. Trips here for me mainly consist of city breaks to see a concert where more time is often spent travelling to and getting ready for our night out than sightseeing, or a few days somewhere on the Welsh coast walking my dog on the same 4 or 5 beaches each time. With our original trip being based on visiting USA National Parks, we wondered if we should maybe spend some time in the UK Parks.

So, still unsure if our trip would even become a possibility, we tentatively started doing some research.

With Wales and Scotland under separate rules and restrictions to here in England, we decided we should plan to stay away from the parks there in case we were still not allowed across the borders by the time August rolled around. That straight away cut down the possibilities to 10 English National Parks. The Norfolk Broads on the east coast, the Southern Downs, New Forest, Exmoor and Dartmoor in the south and the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors, Lake District and Northumberland National Parks to the North. Living in the Midlands, any direction would suit me as nowhere is very far in comparison to the distances we’d have driven in the US.

After some research, we decided rather than being over ambitious and attempting a full 5-week road trip taking in all of the parks when local lockdowns were very likely to come into force and disrupt our plans, we would concentrate on the parks in one area of the country and aim to spend about 10-14 days on our trip. Having seen a number of reports on crowds rushing to the south of England, we eventually decided to head to the parks in the north and came up with a 14 day itinerary during which we would hopefully spend time in the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District, Northumberland and then the North York Moors. We’d begin our adventure midweek to avoid weekend traffic and made sure the days spent in the Lake District, the park we expected to be busiest, were also midweek when it might be slightly quieter.

By the time that it looked as if lockdown would be relaxed enough for our ideas to possibly come to fruition, we found that with everyone being forced into staycations, accommodation options were either very limited or extremely expensive so rather than staying in the parks themselves, we opted for chain hotels in towns on the outskirts of the park – making sure we went for the fully cancellable room options of course, just in case!

Hotels booked, a basic plan of possible activities was next. Covid restrictions meant spontaneity was not as much a possibility as usual. Attractions including National Trust properties, farm parks, boat trips etc were all working on a time-slot booking system and spots were filling up quickly but we were pleased to see most places offering transferable or even refundable tickets in case circumstances changed and visitors couldn’t it.

We wanted to stick with outdoor activities for the main part anyway so were banking on the weather staying mainly dry at least so we could busy ourselves with a range of walks to see the parks’ highlights. In preparation, we found the postcodes for all the car parks we might use and collected together as much change as possible – which is more difficult than it sounds in a world where contactless card payments are preferred everywhere – in case any of the park machines were cash only.

With the government’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme running Mon-Wed throughout August, park attractions weren’t the only thing we couldn’t be spontaneous with. Most restaurants were also operating a book ahead only policy so we had to think ahead as to where to eat on our trip sometimes booking more than a week in advance. Staying in the towns on the outskirts of the parks at least gave us more choice with this and allowed us to vary our cuisine a bit more. The scheme helped us to keep the cost of the trip down a lot along with finding various online vouchers to use at chain restaurants for the remaining days of the week and we kept the cost of eating out down further still by carrying a box of cereal with us for breakfast, buying rolls to make our own lunch and even taking a flask of hot water with us each day to make our own tea!

As we set off for the Peak District, we were fully expecting to have to give up and head home from our trip before reaching the end either due to weather issues or local lockdowns suddenly coming in but surprisingly we made it to all 5 of the parks on our list without interruption. It was certainly very different from our experiences of visiting the National Parks of America in the past with the UK parks being large areas containing lived and worked in towns and villages rather than being actual parks like in the US with an entrance, exit and a route to follow through taking you past all the highlights. We discovered early on that it was best to mainly keep out of the villages and towns after we arrived in Bakewell to find crowded streets and very little social distancing going on and from that point forward we aimed for open spaces where we could hike out to beauty spots on easy to follow trails, keeping a distance from others.

It was great to see a bit more of our own country, to get out into the countryside and go hiking and to drive through such beautiful scenery and while not quite as exciting as the trip we had planned, it was an adventure we would probably never have planned or experienced in normal circumstances.

Keep checking back for my write up of what we got up to in each park starting with our visit to the Peak District!