North York Moors National Park
Moors, river and steam.
Welcome to the Esk Valley.
Thirty miles of quiet villages, packhorse bridges and heather moor, strung along the River Esk from Castleton to Whitby, with a railway that stops at nearly every one.
Don't miss
All things to see and doHistory & heritage
Beggar's Bridge
A graceful 17th-century packhorse bridge built, so the story goes, by a sailor for the sweetheart the river kept him from.
Nature & views
Falling Foss and Midge Hall
A 30-foot waterfall in a wooded gorge, with a tea garden in a woodsman's cottage beside it and a hermit's cave nearby.
Nature & views
Mallyan Spout
The national park's best-known waterfall, a 70-foot curtain of water in a wooded gorge below Goathland.
Railways
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
One of the world's great heritage railways: 24 miles of steam through the moors from Pickering to Grosmont and on to Whitby.
Family days out
The Moors National Park Centre
The national park's main visitor centre, with exhibitions, a café, riverside walks, gardens and a great play area.
History & heritage
Whitby Abbey
The gaunt Gothic ruins on the headland above the harbour, inspiration for Dracula and site of a 7th-century monastery.
The Esk Valley Railway
Let the train take you up the valley
The Esk Valley line runs from Middlesbrough to Whitby with stops at Castleton Moor, Danby, Lealholm, Glaisdale, Egton, Grosmont, Sleights and Ruswarp. Walk from one station to the next, then ride back. At Grosmont it meets the steam trains of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
Plan your journeyVillages along the river
About the villages- Westerdale
- Commondale
- Castleton
- Danby
- Lealholm
- Glaisdale
- Egton Bridge
- Egton
- Grosmont
- Goathland
- Sleights
- Ruswarp
- Whitby
Villages marked have a station on the Esk Valley line.