North Yorkshire Voyage Tips and guide

North Yorkshire is a county in Yorkshire in northern England. Yorkshire was a huge county, the largest in England, so it was traditionally divided into three "ridings" which were later re-organised into four counties. So North Yorkshire is about half the area of Yorkshire, yet still the largest present-day county.

The terrain is a broad fertile plain running north-south, with moorlands either side that are scenic national parks: North York Moors to the east, and Yorkshire Dales to the west within the Pennine hills. It's always been agricultural. In the Middle Ages when wealth was founded upon agriculture, that made the area important, dotted with abbeys to farm that wealth and castles to defend it. When industry came, its towns grew but were largely unspoiled. Smokestack industry went elsewhere: to the textile towns of West Yorkshire, to the coal-mining areas to the south, and to the metal-bashing cities around the north and south fringes of Yorkshire. The towns of North Yorkshire haven't escaped modern sprawl and the hollowing out of high streets, but retain their pleasant character.

54°9′0″N 1°22′48″W

Map of North Yorkshire

• 53.95-1.0833331 York is the star attraction, a walled city long held by the Vikings, and today rich in atmosphere, amenities and visitor attractions.

The east of the county is the plateau of the North York Moors, a national park. The moors reach the coast as cliffs, with little coves, and seaside resorts.

• 54.4858-0.62062 Whitby has a ruined abbey and vampire history.
• 54.2825-0.43 Scarborough is larger, being easier to reach by road and rail.
• 54.211-0.2894 Filey is where the sea starts to make serious inroads into the underlying rock. Here is the county border with East Yorkshire, the Wolds end with the magnificent spur of Flamborough Head, and the land slopes away to Bridlington.

Vale of Pickering is south of the moors. It was once fenland, so its settlements are on raised ground around its perimeter.

• 54.2439-0.7765 Pickering is south of the moors. It has a 13th-century castle, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and nearby is Rievaulx Abbey.
• 54.247-1.0546 Helmsley and its castle is further west, near the scarp of Sutton Bank.
• 54.139-0.7927 Malton is a lowland market town. It's near Castle Howard, a couple of abbeys, and an abandoned medieval village.

The west of the county is moorland riven by scenic valleys, the Yorkshire Dales. Much of it is a national park.

• 53.962-2.0178 Skipton is a market town with a scenic castle.
• 54.072131-2.2818899 Settle is a good centre for walking the Dales.
• 54.15-2.2910 Horton-in-Ribblesdale is at the foot of the "Three Peaks".
• 54.061-2.15311 Malham has the Dales' best scenery, with Malham Cove and Gordale Scar.
• 54.117-2.39212 Clapham is the access village for Ingleborough.
• 54.071-1.99813 Grassington, 54.191389-2.09053914 Buckden and 54.304144-2.19641915 Hawes are three other small towns here.
• 54.406-2.16616 Keld is a stopover village on the Pennine Way.

Between the North York Moors and the Dales is a broad low-lying farmland, with meandering rivers and small market towns. The area has good transport, with the A1 and East Coast railway coursing through.

• The City of York lies at the centre of this stretch.
• 53.781789-1.07030917 Selby has an attractive abbey, with the original "Stars and Stripes": a stain-glass window with the Washington family coat of arms.
• 53.8852-1.26218 Tadcaster is notable for brewing.
• 53.991944-1.53777819 Harrogate is a well-preserved Regency / Victorian spa town.
• 54.0084-1.46720 Knaresborough is its smaller sister, home to a ruined castle and a legendary witch's cave.
• 54.138056-1.52361121 Ripon is a charming small cathedral city, but the main attraction is Fountains Abbey.
• 54.258-1.33822 Thirsk is where the author James Herriot practised as a vet.
• 54.3378-1.428523 Northallerton is the administrative capital of North Yorkshire.
• 54.403-1.73724 Richmond has a pleasant Georgian centre but is engulfed by the barracks town of Catterick, and various military camps and ranges.
• 54.505-1.34825 Yarm lies under the Cleveland Hills at the north end of the county.

Between 1974 and 1996 the towns along the River Tees formed a separate county, Cleveland. When this was abolished the towns north of the river were re-assigned to County Durham, while those to the south joined North Yorkshire. They're industrial and frankly the least attractive part of the county, but if you had to be here for some reason, there's plenty to see and do.

• 54.573889-1.23333326 Middlesbrough is a large town, with the Captain Cook Museum in Marton.
• 54.535-1.056327 Guisborough is a small market town.
• Redcar is a run-down post-industrial town east of Middlesbrough.
• 54.5828-0.973228 Saltburn-by-the-Sea is a coastal resort.

If you intend to fly in and hire a car (which you'll need for the Dales and North York Moors) then best choice is Manchester Airport (MAN ^IATA). It's the other side of the Pennines, but it has excellent global connections and competitive fares. A couple of hours motoring from there will get you most places in the county.

Leeds-Bradford Airport (LBA ^IATA) has a decent range of flights from western Europe and is closer. If you want to base in the north end of the county near the border with Durham or Cumbria, then consider flying into Newcastle (NCL ^IATA). The other nearby airport Durham Tees Valley (MME ^IATA) had few flights.

The central vale is on the East Coast main line. Trains from London Kings Cross take two hours to York. They continue north through Thirsk and Northallerton to Darlington, Durham, Newcastle and Edinburgh. From York, one branch line runs east to Malton, Scarborough, Filey and Bridlington, while another runs west to Knaresborough, Harrogate and Leeds. A branch line from Northallerton cuts north via Yarm to Thornaby (for Stockton) and Middlesbrough. Other rail routes to Teesside are mostly via Darlington: from Middlesbrough trains continue along the coast through Redcar to Saltburn and down the Esk Valley to Whitby. From Leeds, a very scenic route runs northwest through the Dales to Skipton, Settle, Ribblehead, Appleby and Carlisle.

The north-south artery is the A1 motorway. The main east-west route is M62. National Express coaches run to the larger towns, with at least a daily direct coach from London Victoria.

The individual towns are all small enough to see on foot, and buses link the towns, though not very frequently once you get into the Dales and Moors. Beyond that, you start to need a car: from Harrogate to Harlow Carr Gardens is 3 miles, from Ripon to Fountains Abbey is four. You don't want to be tired and drenched before you even start. Scenic spots such as Malham Cove, and the trail-heads for most hiking, are further still from public transport.

The Moors are traversed by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, running from Pickering to Grosmont and Whitby.

Visit York Pass is a 1-3 day visitor pass for 35 attractions in the county, mostly in the city of York. See York#Understand for its pros and cons – you need to see three or more a day to benefit, so you have to gallop along. Seven sights are beyond the city, widely separated so you could only see one per day, even if the roads weren’t congested. Those are Beningbrough Hall 8 miles north of York, Yorkshire Air Forces Museum at Elvington 7 miles southeast, Birds of Prey Centre within Duncombe Park near Thirsk, Castle Howard near Malton, North Yorkshire Moors Railway between Helmsley and Whitby, Captain Cook Museum in Whitby, and Stump Cross Cavern near Pateley Bridge.

Yorkshire Dales are valleys, with the best scenery in Yorkshire. The principal Dales are Wharfedale, Wensleydale, Swaledale, Ribblesdale, and Airedale within the National Park, Nidderdale which is outside the Park but designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and Lonsdale (added to the park in 2016) is in the county of Cumbria. If you've only time to see one, head up Airedale above Malham.

Abbeys in North Yorkshire grew rich on agriculture but fell derelict after the Dissolution under Henry VIII. Parts have survived where they became the local parish church.

• Fountains Abbey near Ripon is the most impressive, along with the adjacent Studley Royal water garden.
• Bolton Priory is beautifully situated by the River Wharfe near Skipton.
• Byland Abbey is near Thirsk on the edge of the North York Moors.
• Easby Abbey is near Richmond.
• Jervaulx Abbey is in Wensleydale below Leyburn.
• Rievaulx Abbey near Helmsley was a great Cistercian abbey.

Castles here all ended up on the losing side: Yorkshire was mostly Royalist during the 17th-century Civil Wars. The castles weren't much damaged in the conflict, but the victorious Parliamentarians then had them "slighted" — partly demolished — to prevent rebels using them in future. So mostly they're just hollow masonry shells, some still imposing, many scrappy. Good examples are Clifford's Tower in York, Skipton, Pickering, Helmsley, Middleham, Bolton and Richmond. But you don't visit them for plush furniture and aristocratic fine art collections.

Grand mansions may call themselves “castles” but were always luxurious dwellings not defensive bastions. They mostly sprang up in the 18th / 19th century on country estates, suitably far from the grubby source of their wealth. Several were on the site of an earlier castle or dissolved abbey, with its ruin retained to ornament the garden. The stand-out is Castle Howard near Malton. Other fine examples are Beningbrough Hall near York, Ripley north of Harrogate and Hazlewood near Tadcaster.

• Lightwater Valley near Ripon is a theme park with Europe's longest rollercoaster The Ultimate.
• The Pennine Way long-distance footpath runs along the west of the county. The southern part around Skipton and Gargrave is low-lying, following the valley. Then it heads up over moorland towards County Durham. It's never technically demanding and seldom far from a road, so you can easily do it section-by-section as a Sunday stroll. Other notable paths are the coastal route between Bridlington, Scarborough and Whitby, and the Cleveland Way looping round the North York Moors.
• Go to the races: Yorkshire has nine racecourses with regular fixtures, and five of them are in North Yorkshire: York, Ripon, Thirsk, Catterick and Redcar. (The others are Beverley in East Yorkshire, Pontefract and Wetherby in West Yorkshire, and Doncaster in South Yorkshire.) Most of the events are flat-racing in summer, but Catterick is among those with jumps races in winter.
• Fossil hunting: the coast has many relics of the Jurassic period, but Speeton near Filey has the later Cretaceous.

York has the best choice of eating places, both for variety and price-range. You'll always find something in the towns listed here, but the best restaurants are often out-of-town: you'll need a car, and a prior conversation about who's driving back. All of Yorkshire does breakfast, but North Yorkshire does the best dinners.

• Beer: there must be a paperback novel and TV costume drama in this somewhere: rival breweries of the Smith family cheek-by-jowl. John Smith took over a long-established brewery in Tadcaster in 1847, then moved the business next door, eventually leaving the old building to his nephew Samuel. John Smith's grew into a large brewing combine, later acquired by Scottish & Newcastle and now part of Heineken. Meanwhile young Sam Smith started his own brewery in the old building, and this firm remains independent. You'll find the products of both Smiths everywhere.
• Wine: Yorkshire has three commercial vineyards. They're at Ryedale (with sites at Westow and Howsham); Yorkshire Heart at Nun Monkton midway between York and Harrogate; and Leventhorpe on the east edge of Leeds, over the county border in West Yorkshire. Is Ryedale the most northerly vineyard in Britain? (More northerly claimants, for instance in Orkney, don't use grapes.) It's certainly the most northerly in Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire is a relatively wealthy, peaceful place to visit and the crime rate is very low. Normal precautions still apply. Beware the weather on the hills: they're not high, but they don't need to be, they're on about the same latitude as Novosibirsk.

• North is County Durham, with the attractive old city of Durham.
• Yorkshire Dales National Park nowadays extends across the Pennines to adjoin the Lake District in Cumbria.
• For big city attractions, head west to Leeds, south to Sheffield or north to Newcastle upon Tyne.