Field Guide: North York Moors

1st March 2025 | Words by Joly Braime @ WildBounds HQ

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Covering over 550 square miles, the North York Moors National Park is a mix of rugged heather moorland, remote valleys, forested hollows and dramatic coastline. Relatively low-lying compared to other national parks, it’s also a lot quieter. The inevitable honeypots are few and far between, and it’s very easy to get off the beaten track.

And getting off the beaten track is very much the point here. The North York Moors doesn’t have the cave systems of the Yorkshire Dales or the extensive climbing opportunities of the Peak District, and the rivers aren’t big or dramatic enough to support much in the way of paddle sports. What this particular park does have in glorious abundance is footpaths, mountain biking trails and winding country lanes for cycle touring.

Much of the time your only company will be sheep and birdlife – the skylarks and curlews, the cackling grouse and perpetually bad-tempered lapwings. You might see barn owls hunting the fence lines, dolphins and diving gannets out in the bays, or the diamond back of an adder sunbathing out in the open.

Sitting alongside the natural beauty and wildlife, the area’s national park status also protects a rich seam of human history. You’ll come across Bronze Age barrows, abandoned Roman camps and medieval marker stones, decommissioned railway tracks and the ruined remnants of ironstone and alum mining. In the 20th century, the Yorkshire coast and nearby moors were dominated by the military, leaving behind the crumbling remains of bunkers, radar stations and tank ranges.

All this and more is just waiting to be found – and the best way to do it is to grab an OS map, plot a route and tramp off into the heather.

Orientation

Centred around a moorland plateau carved up by deep dales, the North York Moors sits on the north east coast of Yorkshire – north of York (the clue is in the name) and south of industrial Teesside.

The northern, southern and western edges of the park are bordered respectively by the Cleveland Hills, Tabular Hills and Hambleton Hills. If you prefer to think in terms of roads, that’s roughly along the A171/172 in the north, the A170 Scarborough road in the south and the busy A19 in the west. The eastern boundary is easy, because it’s the North Sea.

In fact, the moors are quite well defined, sitting as they do on a great tilted shelf of Jurassic rock (sandstone in the north and limestone in the south), and surrounded by much flatter country. The wide Vale of Mowbray lies to the west and the Vale of Pickering to the south, with the plains of Teesside to the north. Hiking the Cleveland hills on a clear day feels like walking the northern ramparts of the national park, offering spectacular views across the plain towards the smokestacks and wind farms of Middlesbrough and Redcar – once a mighty powerhouse of the British steel industry.

Within the national park, the main valley is Eskdale, which leads out to the coast at Whitby (technically not included in the park, and thus rather more developed). Other notable dales include Farndale and Rosedale (famous for spring daffodils and industrial remains, respectively) – but there are several more, each with their own distinct character.

For detailed maps, OS Explorer sheets OL27 and OL26 cover the east and west sides of the North York Moors. At a smaller scale, most of the national park is included on OS Landranger sheet 94, but you'll need numbers 100 and 93 for the western edge. The most useful general-purpose map of the area is the Harvey Maps 1:40,000 North York Moors British Mountain Map, which has the added bonus of being printed on more durable waterproof polyethylene.

Activities

Hiking

With a 1,400-mile network of public footpaths – most of it very well-maintained – you could spend years exploring the North York Moors National Park and still have plenty left to discover. Much of the park is open-access, including some large swathes of forest.

The national park authority is pretty hot on rights of way – meaning that access problems are rare – but a lot of the land is managed for grouse or pheasant shoots and that does come with a couple of cautionary notes. The first is that your map may not be the most reliable on open moorland, where rights of way can disappear into the heather and the tracks that do exist are often unmapped ones that lead to grouse butts or grit stations.

The second is that there are a fair few gamekeepers about, so if you’re wild camping then there’s a decent chance you’ll get moved on. They’re usually polite about it, but there’s still a lot of lingering ill-feeling around wild campers after the post-Covid ‘fly-camping’ boom, and gamekeepers are less likely to turn a blind eye than they once were.

Some classic walks are listed in the highlights section, but it’s easy to come up with a nice route of your own by hanging it off one of the long-distance trails that go through the park. Of which there are four main ones:

• The Cleveland Way national trail is the North York Moors National Park’s flagship long-distance path. It runs for 110 miles from Helmsley to Filey Brigg via a wide loop that takes in some of the choicest moors and dales, plus a long stretch of gorgeous Yorkshire coast.
• The lesser-known Tabular Hills Walk is a 48-mile route from Scarborough to Helmsley, following the shelf of limestone hills at the southern end of the national park. You can combine it with the Cleveland Way to make a superb circular walk.
• The Lyke Wake Walk started out as a 42-mile, 24-hour challenge event in the 1950s. The idea was to cross the North York Moors from Osmotherley to Ravenscar, sticking to high heather moors and avoiding the valleys. It’s long since fallen out of fashion in favour of more Grammable challenges like the Three Peaks, but it remains a wonderful, scenic route surrounded by some rather odd traditions and its own special song. Turn it from an ordeal into a pleasure by spreading it over two 20-mile days and overnighting at the renowned Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge.
• Wainwright’s Coast-to-Coast finishes its 190-mile crossing from west to east at the Bay Hotel pub in Robin Hood’s Bay, and the last 3-4 days cross the North York Moors. Very popular during the summer months, it’s got an international reputation rather like the West Highland Way, and you’ll often see commercial walking groups accompanied by support vans. Overnight stops like the Lion Inn can have a lovely atmosphere of shared camaraderie. Its long-awaited transition to become a national trail is due to be completed in late 2025. 

Cycling

For some unknown reason, the North York Moors isn’t nearly so busy with cyclists as it should be – especially the tarmac-based breed. Guisborough and Redcar are home to a disproportionate number of triathletes and there can be a fair amount of pedal traffic in that corner of the national park, but elsewhere the roads are very quiet.

Which is a shame really, because this part of North Yorkshire has some beautiful cycling routes. One of the best-known is the 171-mile North York Moors Cycleway – a figure-of-eight route that sticks to minor roads and explores some out-of-the-way areas alongside crowd-pleasers like Whitby, Helmsley and Hutton-le-Hole.

The off-road equivalent is the Moor-to-Sea Cycle Network, which links forest tracks, green lanes, minor roads and defunct railway lines into a series of loops that you can string together to make routes of up to 150 miles. Both the North York Moors Cycleway and the Moor-to-Sea Network are accessible from mainline train services via the Esk Valley Railway.

For mountain bikers, much of the action is centred around Dalby Forest and Sutton Bank, but there are quieter areas too. Langdale Forest near Scarborough is a popular spot for bike rides, and the old Whitby-to-Scarborough railway track is a family favourite.

If you’re not sure where to start, then the Yorkshire Cycle Hub might be a good bet. Nestled right at the cul-de-sac end of Great Fryup Dale, it’s got its own bunk house and café, plus a bike shop with Cytech-certified mechanics.

Other activities

It’s not all about boots and bikes, but with so many different activities on offer, it’s tricky to cover them all.

• There’s a busy trail-running scene on the North York Moors, especially further north towards the Teesside end. Whitby cinder track and Dalby Forest both host weekly Parkruns, and there are longer races throughout the year – including the famously savage Hardmoors series.
• While it doesn’t have the climbing scene of the Peaks or Dales, there are a few attractive areas, mostly along the sandstone crags at the northern edge of the national park. The most famous spot is the Wainstones (see below), with good bouldering nearby on the smaller crags at Scugdale (turn off the A172 at Swainby and follow the road a few miles down the valley). Elsewhere, you’ll often find climbers at Highcliffe Nab, near Guisborough.
• Sea angling is an obsession on the Yorkshire coast – particularly among teenage boys and men-of-a-certain-age – but anyone can get in on the action. There are shore fishing marks all down the coast, and in summer when the mackerel are running you’ll see scores of people spinning off Whitby piers. Kayak fishing is popular too, especially in the more sheltered bays like Sandsend and Runswick. If you’re after bigger quarry, plenty of boat operators run sea angling trips.
• Local boats also offer wildlife-watching excursions, especially during the autumn whale migration from late-August to November. Minke whales are the most common, but there are other kinds too, plus dolphins and porpoises. Everyone’s hoping for the humpback jackpot, and they do occasionally show up.
• Inland fishing is by day ticket or seasonal permit, usually from the local estate office or angling club. There's seasonal salmon and sea trout fishing in the River Esk, or cheap and cheerful coarse fishing at Scaling Dam and Lockwood Beck reservoirs. 
• There’s good sea kayaking on the coast, with some sheltered bays for less experienced paddlers. It’s a great way to explore some of the more inaccessible coves, and you’ll often spot the remains of old jet or alum mine workings. Sandsend and Runswick are also good for stand-up paddle boarding, and in summer the dolphins and seals often come right into the bays.
• The rivers are shallower and less good for kayaking or paddle boarding, though you’ll find some activity on the Esk estuary (launch by Coates Marine near the Co-op and head up past Larpool Viaduct to Ruswarp weir). Day paddling is available at Wykeham Lakes and Scaling Dam (you can buy a day membership when they have safety cover on) but a lot of paddlers tend to head up to the Tees for river jaunts from Preston Park or white water at the Tees Barrage.

• The best surf spots are a contentious issue. While people do surf at Whitby (and there’s a surf school there), more experienced surfers tend to gravitate to Cayton Bay, Scarborough or Saltburn.
• There’s a strong local tradition of fossil-hunting on Yorkshire’s Jurassic coast, and you’ll often see ropes bolted into the cliffs (sometimes these are also there to access fishing marks, but the Venn diagram of fossil-hunters and sea anglers has a good deal of crossover). There are lots of good spots, but favourites include Robin Hood’s Bay, Saltwick Bay, Whitby (the rocky bit south of the piers) and the stretch between Sandsend and Kettleness. The area around Whitby is also a good hunting ground for jet – a semi-precious black mineral that was all the rage in the Victorian era. Whatever you’re hunting, be extremely careful of the tides, as it’s very easy to get cut off. 

Highlights

The Hole of Horcum

According to legend, this impressive ‘devil’s punchbowl’ was created by a giant scooping up a great clod of earth to lob at his wife. It looks glacial, but was in fact formed by a gradual process of water erosion.

The classic day out is to circle the edge of the Hole of Horcum then drop down behind it to an old ruined hunting lodge called Skelton Tower. The tower overlooks remote and beautiful Newton Dale, and if you time it right, you might get the money shot of a steam train snaking down the wooded valley.

Sutton Bank

Alf Wight – better known as vet and author, James Herriot – reckoned the view from the top of Sutton Bank was the ‘finest in England’. Back in the 1940s, the 1-in-4 bank was too steep for his old Austin Seven, but fortunately the little car was geared lower in reverse, so he could just about make it up if he drove backwards.

No such worries with a modern motor, and it genuinely is a pretty sensational outlook – with views right across the Vale of Mowbray to the Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales.

These days, Sutton Bank has an excellent National Park Visitor Centre that acts as a hub for outdoor activities in the local area. There are a range of signposted mountain biking routes (rated green to red), plus two purpose-built all-weather cycling tracks and a bike wash station. The footpaths around the centre are wheelchair-accessible and you can also pre-book Trampers (all-terrain mobility scooters).

The Wainstones and Bridestones

The North York Moors have two main areas of rock formations. The first are a series of sandstone crags in the northeastern part of the national park known as the Wainstones. Looking rather like a set of dinosaur teeth, they’re a draw for local climbers, and the amazing views from the Cleveland Escarpment make for superb walking. You can park (and camp) nearby at the Lordstones Country Park, but many walkers also like to park up at Chop Gate and walk an 8ish-mile circuit past the Wainstones.

Further east, the Bridestones are a collection of weathered sandstone lollipops in the northern part of Dalby Forest. It’s an easy walk from the nearby forest car parks, but you can also make a day of it by parking at the Hole of Horcum and taking in nearby Blakey Topping on your way in.

Rosedale ironstone mines

From the mid-1800s to the 1920s, isolated Rosedale was a massive mining concern, supplying ironstone to the blast furnaces of Teesside. It even had its own standard gauge railway that ran across the moors and all the way out to Battersby Junction, near Great Ayton.

These days Rosedale is a tranquil spot, but there are plenty of industrial remnants to explore – including the famous kilns at Chimney Bank. You can walk from the village of Rosedale Abbey or park up on the ridge at Little Blakey. For a longer day out, the old railway is now a wide moorland bridleway, and you can use it to walk a bracing 14-mile loop around Farndale Head.

The Farndale daffodils

Farndale is one of the more out-of-the-way dales in the North York Moors National Park, and for most of the year it’s very quiet. From mid-March into April, however, the valley becomes a sea of petite native daffodils, and visitors flock from all over Yorkshire and beyond to enjoy a stroll along the River Dove.

The standard 3.5-mile route starts in the car park at Low Mill and follows the river up to Church Houses and back. If you’re not a fan of retracing your steps then there’s an alternative return route that runs a little higher up the valley.

Dalby Forest

Despite a slightly cringey rebrand as ‘the Great Yorkshire Forest’, Dalby Forest is a super day out. It’s got walking trails, a visitor centre, cafes and even a Go Ape treetop course – but really, most people are there for the mountain biking.

The 8,500-acre forest offers a full range of different bike tracks, from easy paved routes right up to very challenging runs like the UCI World Cup black trail.

Access to Dalby Forest is slightly unusual. It’s free if you don’t arrive by car (mainly because it’s difficult to do so), or if you’re just passing through – which they define as being in and out within 20 minutes. Otherwise, you just park in any of the car parks and pay on exit (parking charges from £3/hr up to a £15 daily cap, with annual passes available). Full details at Forestry England.

For a slightly quieter experience without all the facilities, Langdale Forest near Scarborough is another good bet for biking.

Roseberry Topping

Roseberry Topping’s prominent Mr Whippy silhouette is one of the most distinctive features of the North York Moors. It’s sometimes called the ‘Yorkshire Matterhorn’ – not without irony, since it’s only 320m tall. But what it lacks in stature, it makes up for in charisma and super views.

It’s a honeypot, and on a half-decent day the roads and paths around it quickly become sclerotic, the tracks speckled with dog poo and empty tins of Monster. When you reach the summit trig, the air is often richly scented with clouds of mango vape juice, weedsmoke or good old-fashioned Marlboros.

To grumble about these things, though, is to miss the point. The North York Moors are full of spots where you can find peace and seclusion, but Roseberry Topping is a place to enjoy being a person among people. All life is there, from gaggles of Teesside teenagers to family groups from Leeds or Bradford. One summer evening last year there was a group of Eritreans filming a political video with a replica AK-47.

It’s the kind of place where people propose to one another, scatter ashes, or just canoodle and watch the sunset.

Practicalities

Where to stay

Many visitors base themselves on the coast – partly because everyone loves the seaside, but also because the transport links are better. The main coastal towns are Scarborough and Whitby, but there are also some picture-perfect former fishing villages like Runswick Bay, Staithes and Robin Hood’s Bay (known simply as ‘Bay’ to the locals).

In the south, Pickering, Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside are pretty market towns that all make good bases for exploring the North York Moors National Park. Pickering in particular is close to highlights including the Hole of Horcum, Dalby Forest and the North Yorkshire Moors steam railway.

The northern part of the national park is generally less popular with visitors, but Guisborough and Great Ayton are both attractive places with decent transport links, well-situated for big-hitters like Roseberry Topping and the Captain Cook Monument.

Within the national park, some of the larger villages have decent accommodation offerings including pubs, B&Bs and campsites. Hutton-le-Hole, Rosedale Abbey and Farndale are very appealing but difficult to access without a car. For those on public transport, Goathland (or Aidensfield if you’re a Heartbeat fan) has a regular bus service, while the Esk Valley Railway line serves larger villages including Castleton, Danby, Lealholm, Glaisdale, Egton and Grosmont.

Camper vanning

With so many secluded laybys and remote parking spots, the North York Moors National Park is a great place to bring a camper van – but sadly the explosion in popularity has prompted overnight parking bans in certain very high-volume seaside locations. At time of writing (February 2025), there were short-term bans in place at Sandsend, Cayton Bay and Scarborough seafront, which may or may not become permanent after a 6-month consultation period.

Getting around

Unfortunately, car is still very much king on the North York Moors.

North Yorkshire lost much of its rail network in the 60s, and train connections to the rest of the country are pretty ropey. To access the North York Moors via mainline rail services, your best entry points are Middlesbrough, Scarborough or Malton. All three have good onward bus services to other towns and villages in the area, and Middlesbrough also allows you to transfer onto the useful but infrequent Esk Valley Railway.

The Esk Valley line was an unlikely survivor of the Beeching Axe, running from ‘Boro’ to Whitby via a string of tiny moorland villages. It can be a bit St Trinian’s if you hit a school train, but it’s also much favoured by families from Middlesbrough visiting the seaside – and it connects to several Eskdale villages that are pretty much inaccessible via the bus network.

Between Pickering and Whitby, you also have the appealing option of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. This heritage line features steam locomotives and glamorous vintage rolling stock, but it also provides a regular service in the summer months, and serves some fairly isolated villages including Grosmont, Goathland and Levisham. A particular favourite is Newtondale Halt – an unattended request stop in the middle of the woods that’s perfect for walkers. Signs on the platform warn you to watch out for adders.

As for buses, most routes run around the edges of the moors. The coastal route between Scarborough, Whitby and Middlesbrough is very well served (timetables here), and hubs like Guisborough and Great Ayton have decent bus connections. At the southern edge of the national park, places like Kirkbymoorside and Helmsley struggle a bit more with public transport, but you can still get there with a bit of forward planning.

Unfortunately, the combination of geography and economic viability means bus services within the moors themselves are patchy or non-existent. Between June and October, the volunteer-run Moorsbus service covers a variety of moorland routes, but buses are infrequent and you have to plan carefully.

One of the most useful buses in the area is the Coastliner (numbers 840 and 843). There are various permutations of the route, but it runs from Leeds and/or York to Whitby or Scarborough, stopping at Pickering, Thornton-le-Dale and even Goathland. Often appearing on lists of Britain’s most scenic bus routes, it’s regular, convenient and incredibly good value.

Wherever you stay and however you get there, the rolling moors, secluded dales and craggy coastline in this part of North Yorkshire are full of secrets to discover and adventures to unspool. See you there…