North York Moors

The North York Moors National Park is a landscape of sweeping contrasts. Vast expanses of open heather moorland — the largest continuous area of heather in England — give way to deep, wooded valleys and a coastline of towering cliffs and fishing villages that feels like another world entirely. Less crowded than the Lake District and less well-known than the Yorkshire Dales, the North York Moors have a quiet grandeur that rewards the kind of slow, exploratory travel that motorhomes do best. From our Pontefract depot, the southern edge of the moors is around 90 minutes away.

The most straightforward route from Pontefract takes you north on the A1(M) to Thirsk, then east on the A170 through the Hambleton Hills and into the national park. You will know you have arrived when the landscape lifts suddenly from the flat Vale of York onto the western escarpment, and the views open out across miles of rolling moorland. Alternatively, head for York and then take the A64 east toward Malton, approaching the moors from the south through the Howardian Hills — a route that takes you past Castle Howard, one of the grandest stately homes in England.

Helmsley is the natural gateway to the western moors. This handsome market town, with its castle ruins, its walled garden, and its Friday market, sits at the point where the fertile lowlands meet the rising moor. The Cleveland Way national trail passes through on its 109-mile circuit of the moors and the coast. Rievaulx Abbey, three miles west of Helmsley in a secluded valley, is one of the most beautiful monastic ruins in England. Founded by Cistercian monks in 1132, its soaring columns and delicate stonework are framed by wooded hillsides that make the setting as memorable as the architecture.

Pickering, to the south-east, is the starting point of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, a preserved steam line that runs 18 miles through moorland and forest to Whitby on the coast. The journey takes around 90 minutes each way and passes through Goathland — familiar to television viewers as Aidensfield in Heartbeat and to film fans as Hogsmeade station in the first Harry Potter film. The railway operates throughout the year, with special services for Christmas, Halloween, and wartime re-enactments. It is one of the finest heritage railways in the country and an essential experience.

The moors themselves are best experienced on foot. The heather blooms in August and September, when the landscape turns a vivid purple that stretches to the horizon. Rosedale, a former ironstone-mining valley, offers a circular walk along the old mineral railway that gives panoramic views across the moor. Farndale, to the west, is famous for its wild daffodils in spring — a protected display that carpets the valley floor along the River Dove. The Hole of Horcum, a vast natural amphitheatre carved into the moorland near the A169, is one of the most striking geological features in the park and makes for a wonderful circular walk.

The North York Moors coast is as dramatic as anything in Britain. Robin Hood's Bay, where the red-roofed cottages tumble down the cliffside to the rocky shore, is the eastern terminus of Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk and one of the most photographed villages in England. Staithes, further north, clings to the cliff above a tiny harbour where Captain Cook once worked as a grocer's apprentice. Whitby, presided over by the ruins of its cliff-top abbey, is the jewel of the coast — a working fishing port with the finest fish and chips in Yorkshire, a literary connection to Dracula, and a character that is entirely its own.

For motorhome campsites, the moors are well provided. Spiers House near Cropton offers woodland pitches in the heart of the national park. Hooks House Farm above Robin Hood's Bay has stunning coastal views and direct access to the Cleveland Way. Cawthorn near Pickering is a quiet, family-run site handy for the steam railway. The Moors are generally quieter than the Lakes or the Dales, and finding a pitch — even in high summer — is usually less of a challenge.

The driving is excellent, too. The roads across the moors are often single-track with passing places, which keeps speeds low and allows you to absorb the scenery. The A170 along the southern edge, the A171 along the coast, and the minor roads that cross the moor tops are all suited to motorhome travel, provided you drive with patience and consideration. The climb from Hutton-le-Hole up onto Blakey Ridge, past the Lion Inn — one of the most isolated pubs in England — is a drive you will not forget.

The North York Moors offer something that the more famous national parks sometimes struggle to provide: space and solitude. On a weekday in September, you can walk for hours across the heather without seeing another person. That sense of wildness, combined with the drama of the coast and the warmth of the market towns, makes the moors a superb motorhome destination. Ninety minutes from Pontefract, and a world away from everything.