North York Moors National Park Tourist Information

The North York Moors were made a national park in 1952 and are renowned throughout the world as a wild, romantic heather moorland, divided by a series of narrow valleys of lush green pastureland. The Moors extend from almost to Whitby in the east, to the Vale of Mowbray in the west. Their southern boundary is the Vale of Pickering, and to the north, the moors end with the steep slopes of the Cleveland Hills.

B&B in North Yorkshire Moors          North Yorkshire Moors Hotels

There are some very attractive villages dotted across the Moors, and these are subject to stringent planning laws to help preserve the beauty and heritage of this wonderful area.

The Park covers an area of 544 square miles and even though popular with walkers, it's very easy to find a space of your own with no one else around for miles. The Moors are crossed by Wainwright's Coast-to-Coast route, the Cleveland Way, and the Lyke Wake Walk.

They are also crossed by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, a steam railway which runs from Pickering to Grosmont (and less frequently, to Whitby) via Levisham (with a 1912-style station), Newton Dale Halt, Goathland (the setting for ITV's Heartbeat, and which also featured in the first Harry Potter film has been restored to 1922-style), Grosmont (in the style of a 1955 British Rail station) to Whitby. The Moorsbus also provides transport around the villages for walkers and tourists.

North Yorkshire Moors Cottages

The Moors are popular with grouse shooters and you can see butts - the hollows the hunters hide behind - amongst the heather.

The underlying terrain of the Moors is composed mainly of rocks laid down in Jurassic times 205 to 142 million years ago when the area basked in a warm tropical climate - and for part of this time the Moors formed the sea floor. Over the last two million years the moors have been subject to periods of intense glaciation and the glaciers helped shape the land rounding and softening the tops of the hills, whilst the meltwater carved out steep-sided channels, such as Kirkham Gorge.

For the latest North Yorkshire Moors events, check the Hello Yorkshire blog.

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Things to see and do: -

Rievaulx Abbey

North Yorks Moors Railway

Byland Abbey

Forge Valley National Nature Reserve

Farndale Local Nature Reserve

Ryedale Folk Museum

Robin Hoods Bay

Hole of Horcum

Rosedale Abbey

Eden Camp Museum

Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo

Hutton-le-Hole

Heritage Coast

Roseberry Topping

White Horse of Kilburn

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Reserves (Ashberry Pastures, Bridestones, Ellerburn Bank, Fen Bog, Garbutt Wood, Hagg wood Marsh, Hayburn Wyke, Littlebeck)

Whitby

Pickering

Helmsley

Cropton Brewery

Goathland - setting for ITV's Heartbeat

Lyke Wake Walk - 39 miles across the Moors from Osmotherley to Ravenscar

Coast to coast walk - 192 miles from St Bee's in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay

Cleveland Way - 110 miles from Helmsley to Filey