Beauty and Tranquillity

Famed for its vast but sometimes bleak moorland landscapes, there’s much more to the North York Moors than meets the eye. While heather covers much of the landscape, few know that the North York Moors hold one of the largest concentrations of ancient and veteran woodlands in northern England. Woodland and forests cover about 23% of the national park and this means it is home to an array of wildlife; it is a European Special Protection Area for merlin and golden plover, meaning it is internationally renowned as a sanctuary for a range of ground nesting birds. Covering 554 square miles, the land contained within the national park has a chequered past, and it is this that gives the area its unique appeal; the national park authority’s main priority is the conservation and preservation of not only environmental heritage but cultural heritage too. Much of the expansive heather moorland is land that was razed by Iron and Bronze Age settlers, who cleared the woodlands to build earthworks. This was then farmed by Medieval monks who built many of the abbeys that punctuate the valleys of this landscape, and which stand as ruinous relics of the dissolution of the monasteries throughout the Tudor period. Cutting through this array of English cultural heritage is the North York Moors (NYM) railway; an example of the scope of Victorian industrial expansion which opened in 1836 and created a line linking Pickering with Whitby. Today, the NYM ‘There is technically only one town within the boundary of the national park’ heritage railway charity operates the steam trains that run daily up and down this line, having rescued it in 1973 following the Beeching closure of 1965. The North York Moors is steeped in history spanning centuries and its diverse landscapes are an ode to the way it has adapted and thrived throughout the years. The park itself covers 26 miles of rugged Yorkshire and Cleveland coastline, encompassing some of North Yorkshire’s prettiest villages. When asked about the North York Moors, many assume that Whitby is its most popular destination, and while it may be true that this is