Day 252 - The moors are moreish

Ticket taker on the North Yorkshire
Moors Railway

There is something about the vast emptiness of the rolling moorlands around the UK that tempts you to wander them. They have a beautiful loneliness that makes you want to meander their heather-covered hills in peaceful bliss. But it's that bliss that can be a danger. They look simple, but they are complex. Storms and fog can come on quickly, and suddenly this seemingly nondescript landscape can become life-threatening. In the gloom, it can all seem the same colour and lacking distinguishable landmarks. Writers have for centuries used the moors to depict a life of hardship and seclusion (think Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor). As I write this, a wildfire has broken out over 6 kms the moors near Manchester.

But today, while a fog bank was looming off the Whitby coast this morning, the sky above was a glorious blue without a cloud in it. Seems like a good day to step back in time and out onto the North Yorkshire moors.

Goathland Station

We grabbed a quick coffee from Clara's then made our way to the train station to get a one-way ticket to the village of Goathland via the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR).

The NYMR runs the 18 miles between Whitby and Pickering, and is one of the oldest rail lines in the UK having opened in 1836. At the time, Whitby was a great fishing port, and the line was intended to open up trade. However, all that had stopped by 1965, when the line was closed. It didn't take long for the locals to get together to form the North York Moors Historical Railway Trust Ltd with the intention of re-opening the line. Today it is the busiest steam heritage line in the world, carrying upwards of 350,000 passengers each year.

When we arrived at the ticket office, there was a long queue already formed outside. By the time our 10 o'clock train steamed into the station, the platform was packed with passengers, but we managed to get a seat.

We enjoyed a lovely journey, but didn't take the train all the way to Pickering. Instead, we disembarked at Goathland. This station is famous for being used as Hogsmeade Station in the Harry Potter movies and was in the 1985 music video for Simply Red's Holding Back the Years (really dating myself). There carriages even appeared in the TV series Downton Abbey.

Police car used in the TV series Heartbeat.

The village of Goathland is also famous in it's own right as it is the setting for the fictional town of Aidensfield in the TV series Heartbeat. While I never watched the show, Phil has...as had most of the many tourists who seemed to be enjoying seeing all the filming locations the village offered.

Another building used as the funeral home and garage
in Heartbeat.

Mallyan Spout

From Goathland, we took a 3-mile hike to Mallyan Spout and Beck Hole. Mallyn Spout is a 70-ft high waterfall, the tallest in the North Yorkshire Moors. It requires a bit of a clamber over rocks and is a bit hidden behind a bend, but the explorer Phil managed to find it while I gave up and had a rest on a lovely park bench nearby. But to my defense, the walk did require a 500-foot ascent, and I'd only had one coffee so far.

Just a few steps to climb

Which brings me to lunch. After climbing back up out of the valley, we stopped for lunch at the Coach House, a really lovely sandwich shop that is part of the Mallyan Spout Hotel in Goathland.

Lunch!!

All this, and we had yet to be up on the "real" moors. As we were leaving from our lunch, Phil finally had his chance as the open access to the moors presented itself to him. For a brief few minutes he had found his bliss, and he would have kept walking if I'd let him. But we had Goathland to explore, Yorkshire ice cream to try and a bus back to Whitby to catch so Phil would be back in time to catch the Germany v South Korea World Cup match while I had a nap. Although from the sounds I heard coming from him as he watched the Germany lose, he probably wished he had chosen to get lost in the moors.

Phil makes it to the "real" moors, but resists the temptation to go wandering off.