Glaisdale Rigg

Glaisdale Rigg is the long ridge of heather moor that separates Glaisdale from the Esk Valley proper. A quiet road and an old green track run along its crest from the village towards Rosedale Head, with the whole of the dale spread out below: the river winding through the fields, the villages strung along it, and the sea beyond Whitby on a clear day.

The rigg is dotted with Bronze Age burial mounds and old boundary stones, and in August the heather is at its best here. Grouse explode from the ling at your feet.

At night it is one of the best places in the valley for stargazing, far from any streetlight; park in a lay-by, switch off your torch and give your eyes twenty minutes.