We did our North York Moors and Whitby Day Tour from York by Mountain Goat on a cold and rainy November morning. As we were the only ones doing the tour, our driver/guide Lee picked us up from our guest house at 9. Lee gave a fascinating commentary on the way with lots of interesting titbits, explaining where we were going and a history of each place. Our first stop of the tour was Helmsley, a picturesque market town on the banks of the River Rye for a quick coffee.
From Helmsley, we travelled into the national park itself, famed for the stunning views of heather moorland, pine forests and green rolling hills interspersed with wooded river valleys, religious ruins and timeless villages. It came as a pleasant surprise that there were entire villages with communities living harmoniously in the heart of the national park. Lee gave us an interesting insight about the various crosses, ruined castles and ancient burial mounds dotting the park.
We stopped at Whitby for lunch, a traditional seaside town, where there is a wide choice of places to eat with fish and chips being the local favourite. There are a number of things to see and do such as visiting the dramatic ruins of Whitby Abbey, which was the inspiration for the novel ‘Dracula’, seeing Captain Cook’s boat, Byland’s Abbey and taking a stroll along the harbour with its quaint shops.
We stopped next in Goathland, for a brief stop at the Goathland Station, which featured in the world renowned Harry Potter movies as Hogsmead.
Our only regret was not traveling via steam train across the moors to Pickering. The train doesn’t run in the winter months. All in all, it was a fantastic trip with wonderful memories forged for a lifetime. Thank you, Lee and Mountain Goat.
