Hole of Horcum walk

The Hole of Horcum (sometimes searched as Horcum Hole), North Yorkshire, lies beside the A169 between Pickering and Whitby.

The route, step by step

1. From the car park, cross the A169 with care; traffic comes fast down Saltergate Bank. Take the path to the right along the rim. It runs north for about 600 metres with the Hole falling away on your left, and it follows the line of Horcum Dike, a prehistoric boundary bank that is itself a scheduled monument.
2. At the gate and fingerpost, where a path drops left into the Hole, go through the gate instead and follow the broad track south-west onto Levisham Moor, signed for Dundale Pond. This is part of the Tabular Hills Walk.
3. The track crosses the moor for about two miles, passing the low banks of prehistoric dykes and Seavy Pond, which is often dry, before bearing south down a grassy valley to Dundale Pond and its five-way fingerpost. The pond is the one wet place on the moor, and cattle graze around it.
4. At the pond turn left, signed Dundale Griff to Hole of Horcum.
5. Dundale Griff is a tree-lined ravine, a little over half a mile long. Keep to the path above the gorge; the Park warns of slippery rock and falling stones. The ruins of Malton Priory's medieval sheep farm are beside the beck near the bottom.
6. At the T-junction at the foot of the Griff turn left, signed Hole of Horcum, and follow Levisham Beck up the valley, with a wall on your right. Two small streams are crossed, the second by a footbridge, then light woodland gives way to pasture and the empty farmhouse of Low Horcum, built in 1811 and lived in until the 1960s, appears ahead.
7. Pass to the left of Low Horcum and keep north up the bottom of the Hole. Cross the infant beck and climb the steep stone-pitched path to the gate you passed at step 2, then turn right along the rim for the car park.

If you would rather go down the steep path than up it, walk the loop the other way round: drop into the Hole from the gate first and take the lower path at the two junctions after Low Horcum.

Map

Two longer options

Skelton Tower adds about two miles and an hour, making 11 km. At Dundale Pond turn right instead, signed Levisham Station; at the fingerpost by a wall corner turn right across the moor, and at the edge of the escarpment bear right down a hollow way with the tower ahead. The tower is a roofless two-storey shooting lodge of about 1830, built for the Reverend Robert Skelton, rector of Levisham, and listed Grade II; it stands above Newtondale, with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in the valley below. Return the same way to the pond and continue as before.

Levisham village makes a seven-mile day with a pub halfway. From the foot of Dundale Griff carry on south-west along the beck instead of turning left, climb the steps into Levisham and come back by the field path above the eastern side of the valley to Low Horcum. The Horseshoe Inn records these hours: Opens only from 3pm Monday to Friday. Sunday is the only day they serve lunch, noon to 1.45. Confirm current service before travelling. Levisham station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway is a mile and a half below the village and 450 feet down, up a steep, narrow path, which turns the walk into a car-free day in the running season.

For the view alone, the accessible viewing platform is a short walk from the car park on a Miles without Stiles route, and the Whitby Guide's short loop along the rim to Levisham Brow and back is about 2.5 miles.

What you are looking at

The Hole was not scooped out by a glacier, as it looks, but by springs. Water rising from the hillside has undermined the slopes above for thousands of years, widening a narrow valley into the bowl you see, and the Park says the process continues today. The legend is better known: Wade the Giant scooped up a handful of earth to throw at his wife Bell, missed, and the clod became Blakey Topping, the lone hill a mile or so to the east.

Levisham Moor is, in Historic England's words, one of the more extensive and complex prehistoric and medieval landscapes known in the area, scheduled since 1964: Early Bronze Age cross-ridge dykes and at least five round barrows, Iron Age field systems, a settlement of four enclosures with a first-century iron-smelting furnace, hollow ways and packhorse routes, and the sheep farm the monks of Malton Priory kept at Dundale Griff. Most of it is low banks in the heather, which is why the Park asks you to keep to the path.

The whole estate, about 1,400 hectares, has belonged to the National Park Authority since it bought the land between 1975 and 1988 to stop the moor being ploughed, and it is the Authority's largest holding. The moor is part of the North York Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation; merlin and golden plover breed here, and the north-facing slopes of the Hole are the most southerly place in Britain where the dwarf cornel grows. The Authority decided against grouse shooting and in 2011 let the sporting rights for falconry instead; we have not confirmed the current arrangement.

The Saltersgate Inn, the old coaching inn on the bend at the top, closed in 2007 and was demolished in September 2018 for a cafe that has not been built. A 2025 report said the site was still undeveloped, and we have not checked it on the ground; do not count on anywhere to eat at Saltergate itself.

When to come

Late August for the heather, when the moor and the sides of the Hole turn purple. Spring for curlew, lapwing and golden plover, with dogs on a short lead. Any clear winter day for the view, which is west over the bowl, so expect the sun in your eyes in the afternoon. After rain the bottom of the Hole is muddy and the moor is boggy; in low cloud the moor section is exposed and the track is the only line to follow.

Four honest cautions

1. The climb out at the end is steep. Reverse the loop if you would rather descend it.
2. The car park machines take cards only, and the phone app needs a signal you may not have.
3. There are portaloos at the car park and nothing else for five miles; the nearest permanent toilets are at Goathland, Thornton-le-Dale and Pickering.
4. Dundale Griff has loose rock. Keep to the path, and keep children close.

Nearby

• The Bridestones walk
• Mallyan Spout walk
• Levisham
• Pickering
• Dalby Forest
• the heather guide
• all walks

Hole of Horcum walk FAQs

How long is the Hole of Horcum walk?

The National Park's circular from Saltergate is 8.3 km, about five miles, with 162 m of climb, and takes two and a quarter to three hours. With the Skelton Tower diversion it is 11 km and about four hours.

Where do you park for the Hole of Horcum?

At the National Park's Saltergate car park on the A169, YO18 7NS, at the top of the Hole: £3.90 up to 2 hours, £6.20 over 2 hours, coach £7.50, card or app only.

Is the Hole of Horcum walk hard?

Moderate. The moor section is a broad, nearly level track; the hard part is the steep stone path out of the Hole at the end, and the ravine of Dundale Griff needs care when wet.

Can you take a dog?

Yes, on a lead. Sheep and Highland cattle graze the route, and from 1 March to 31 July the Park asks for a short lead for the nesting birds.

Is there a bus to the Hole of Horcum?

Yes. Coastliner 840 between York, Malton, Pickering and Whitby stops at Saltergate Hole of Horcum, roughly every two hours Monday to Saturday.

Are there toilets?

Two accessible portaloos in the car park, and none on the walk.

Sources: North York Moors National Park Authority, Hole of Horcum, mythology, history, ecology and Levisham Estate pages, car park list (September 2026), terms, and the Levisham Moor and Hole of Horcum route; Historic England list entries 1020820, 1020117 and 1206299; Walking Britain walks 3534, 3585 and 1397; the Whitby Guide (June 2026); grough, 13 December 2013, on the footpath work; Scarborough News, September 2018, and the Yorkshire Post, April 2018, on the Saltersgate Inn; Yorkshire Post, 2011, on the falconry lease; Transdev Coastliner and bustimes.org (9 October 2026); North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Levisham station; CAMRA listings for the Horseshoe Inn and the Fox and Rabbit (2024). Checked 10 October 2026.

Where to stay

Basing yourself close by turns this into an easy morning walk rather than a long drive, see where to stay in the North York Moors for the villages and types of accommodation that suit this side of the park.