History & heritage
Waterfalls and packhorse bridges, steam engines and abbey ruins, tea gardens and moorland viewpoints. Filter by type or by village.
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.
Whitby Abbey
The gaunt Gothic ruins on the headland above the harbour, inspiration for Dracula and site of a 7th-century monastery.
Captain Cook Memorial Museum
The 17th-century house where the young James Cook lodged as an apprentice, now a museum of his life and voyages.
Danby Castle
A fortified 14th-century manor that was home to Catherine Parr, and still the seat of a working manorial court.
Duck Bridge
A 14th-century packhorse bridge over the Esk, narrow, humped and still in use by walkers and cyclists.
Hunter's Sty Bridge
A medieval packhorse bridge over the infant Esk, restored by the Victorians in fine Gothic style.
Ralph Cross and Fat Betty
The medieval moorland crosses that are the emblem of the national park, on the high road south from Castleton.
St Hedda's Church
The "Cathedral of the Moors": a richly painted Catholic church holding relics of the martyr Nicholas Postgate.
St Mary's Church, Whitby
The extraordinary Norman church at the top of the 199 steps, crammed with Georgian box pews and galleries like the inside of a ship.
Wade's Causeway
Over a mile of mysterious stone causeway across Wheeldale Moor, long called a Roman road, and still argued over.
Whitby Lifeboat Museum
The story of one of the busiest lifeboat stations on the east coast, told in the old boathouse on Pier Road.
Whitby Museum and Pannett Park
A gloriously old-fashioned museum of fossils, ships, jet, Captain Cook and the notorious Hand of Glory, in a pretty park.