North Yorkshire

We arrived in Thornton Le Dale and were amazed how picturesque the village was. It is a small village not far from Pickering in the Northern part of Yorkshire. Our accommodation was at ‘East Hill Farm’ on the outskirts of the village. We had booked the ‘Garden Apartment’ and what a garden there is there! The garden at property was magnificent – full of late summer flowers, including the best begonias I have ever seen. The garden is looked after by the owner and his two daughters. The property is a working farm; they have a flock of sheep, chickens, pigs, rabbits and several dogs including 2 working sheep dogs.



The wonderful garden near our apartment.

The view from our apartment window.

When we first arrived we noticed a small stream running through the village. We took off and walked back into the village and a local told us about a thatched cottage by the stream. The cottage is picture perfect and photographed by locals & visitors alike. Photos of the cottage are often used on postcards and boxes of chocolates and biscuits. The stream runs through the village and the water is crystal clear. Thornton Le Dale is certainly one of the prettiest UK villages I have been too.

The thatched cottage by the stream at Thornton Le Dale.

 

I wanted to see the Yorkshire Moors, so on our second day here we decided to drive up to the Moors. Not from the village there was a mobile information van set up and many people were parking there and taking off to walk some of the many walking paths through the Moors. We had a long chat to the information people and discovered that the ‘Heather’ was in flower. Expecting to see a lot of mauve flowers I was disappointed. We were told because of the very late winter in the UK it was bad season for the Heather. The information person gave us some hints and tips where to go and we found we were not far from “Heartbeat” country. The village where “Heartbeat” is filmed is called Goathlands so we decided to have a look. Once we got there we found lots of tour buses and heaps of cars and nowhere to park. So we just drove around the village and did see the garage and one of the police cars used in the series.

The North Yorkshire Moors are a vast expanse of rolling hills covered in Heather far as the eye can see. The moors are a protected area and we had to cross several cattle grids as sheep graze thought-out the whole area. We found some delightful small villages such as Grosmont, Danby & Castleton where we had lunch in a typical English Tea Room.

You do find patches of flowering Heather and it is lovely.

 

Even though it was mid-afternoon we decided to go onto Whitby a well-known coastal holiday town. The town is dominated by the ancient Whitby Abbey that is located high on a headland. There was an original abbey on the site in the 600’s but the Abbey was rebuilt in the 1100’s by the Norman invaders. Today it is a ruin but still an interesting to visit. We were given headsets to listen to these gave us a good overview of the history of the Abbey.



Whitby Abbey.

We walked down into the harbor area of Whitby and walked along the ancient harbor. These days there are many fish’n’chip shops, souvenir shops, lots of other food shops as well as many amusement places the ‘Brits’ seem to enjoy so much. The walk along the harbor was interesting - on every ½ and full hour boats can request that the bridge over the harbor entrance open. We saw this happen 3 times while we were there. Where the harbor meets the North Sea there is an old walled harbor with old lighthouses on the end.

Whitby Harbour

All in all, York and North Yorkshire was well worth including on the itinerary.