Villages & Places
Honey-coloured stone, pantile roofs, becks running past the front doors and a pub at the end of it. Here's what each village is actually like, and which one to base yourself in.
The North York Moors is a park of villages rather than towns. Between the heather tops, the dales run down in narrow green fingers, and almost every one of them holds a huddle of pantile-roofed cottages, a beck, a church and a pub. Six of them are worth planning a day, or a week. Around: Thornton-le-Dale for the thatched cottage everyone photographs, Pickering for the castle and the steam railway, Helmsley for the handsomest market square in the park, Goathland for Heartbeat and Harry Potter, Levisham for the silence, Hutton-le-Hole for the sheep-grazed green and the Ryedale Folk Museum, and Allerston for the doorstep access to Dalby Forest. On the park's eastern edge, Robin Hood's Bay adds a coastal village of cobbled alleys and smuggling passages falling straight to the sea.
Most are within 30 to 40 minutes of one another, so you do not have to choose only one. Thornton-le-Dale and Pickering are two miles apart; Goathland and Levisham share the same railway line. A single base on the southern edge puts all six within an easy morning's drive. For the bigger towns, our three full destination guides, Pickering, Whitby and Scarborough, cover history, things to do, beaches, food, transport, events and accessibility in depth.
The park divides neatly. The southern edge, Pickering, Thornton-le-Dale, Allerston. Is the practical choice: shops, pubs, the steam railway terminus and Dalby Forest all close together, with the coast about 40 minutes away.
The west, around Helmsley, is gentler and more polished, with the abbeys and the Hambleton Hills. The heart of the moors, Goathland, Levisham, is quieter and more atmospheric, best if you want to step out of the door onto open moorland, but with fewer amenities.
For a first visit with a mix of walking, the railway and days at the coast, the southern villages are hard to beat. If you are coming from York, the whole southern side is under an hour's drive, which makes it the usual first taste of the moors for anyone based in the city.
The famous thatched cottage, a beck through the middle, and Mathewsons of Bangers and Cash.
Full guide to the gateway town: Norman castle, medieval wall paintings, the steam railway, Beck Isle Museum and the Monday market.
A quiet hamlet on the southern edge, minutes from Dalby Forest.
A quiet A170 village with a 12th-century church and a Grade I listed Georgian hall.
The only market town in the national park, medieval castle, walled garden, Duncombe Park, a Friday market and the start of the Cleveland Way.
Heartbeat's Aidensfield and Harry Potter's Hogsmeade, with sheep on the green.
Sheep on a rumpled green, a beck through the middle and the Ryedale Folk Museum.
A vanished priory, Victorian ironstone ruins and the 1-in-3 climb of Chimney Bank.
A single wide street, a station in the valley below and moorland straight off the end.
Cobbled alleys falling to the sea, smuggling history, rock pools and fossils on the scars.
The harbour town beneath the abbey, 199 steps, parking, Captain Cook and Dracula.
Britain's first seaside resort, two bays, a castle headland, Peasholm Park and the Spa.
A working harbour wedged in a ravine, Captain Cook's first sight of the sea, and fossils below.
A crescent of red-roofed cottages above one of the best family beaches on the coast.
Three miles of sand to Whitby, surf, Mulgrave Woods and the old alum works.
Victorian pier, the 1884 water-balance cliff lift and the north coast's surf beach.
The town that never was, clifftop alum works, seals below and the Cinder Track.
The western walkers' village: Cod Beck, Mount Grace Priory and the Cleveland Way.
Captain Cook's boyhood village beneath Roseberry Topping, on the Esk Valley line.
Steam engine sheds, the Rail Trail to Goathland and the junction of two railways.
The Moors National Park Centre, a medieval castle, Duck Bridge and Danby Beacon.
Quick, straight answers to the questions visitors ask most. Each one links through to the fuller guide.
Busiest in the summer school holidays and on sunny weekends, especially the coast and honeypots like Goathland and Thornton-le-Dale. Visit midweek, out of school holidays, or in spring and autumn; the open moor is always the easiest place to escape people.
Villages & places →Helmsley, Pickering, Kirkbymoorside and Thirsk (Herriot country), plus Malton just to the south. Each with markets, independent shops and good places to eat.
Villages & places →Thornton-le-Dale (often called Yorkshire's prettiest), Hutton-le-Hole, Goathland, Robin Hood's Bay and Staithes are perennial favourites, each with its own character.
Villages & places →In North Yorkshire, north-east England, between the Vale of York and the North Sea coast. Bounded roughly by Thirsk and the A19 to the west, Teesside to the north, the Whitby-to-Scarborough coast to the east, and the Vale of Pickering to the south. The main gateway towns are Helmsley, Pickering, Thirsk and Whitby.
Villages & places →Ride the steam railway, visit museums (Beck Isle Museum in Pickering, the Ryedale Folk Museum at Hutton-le-Hole, Whitby's museums), explore abbey visitor centres, or browse the shops and tearooms of Helmsley and Whitby.
Pickering guide →The North York Moors contains both open "moors" and green farming "dales" such as Farndale and Rosedale. It's also screen country: Goathland is Heartbeat's "Aidensfield," and Goathland station played Hogsmeade in the Harry Potter films.
Goathland guide →