Goathland, Beck Hole and Darnholm

The route goes around the edge of the village, but exploring the centre first reveals houses straggling along a wide street with open grassland kept neatly trimmed by tame, freely wandering black-faced sheep (with flagged causeways along verges likely dating from the mid-17th century). The starting point is the late-Victorian Church of St Mary, containing a Saxon or early-Norman font and a 12th-century altar slab found in the churchyard.

From Goathland the route leads down a steep path to the valley of West Beck and Mallyan Spout (a fine 70-foot / 21-metre waterfall in a fern-covered rocky setting). Continuing downstream through woodland by Incline Cottage, you see the original course of the Whitby and Pickering Railway used as a walking trail. In early years carriages were uncoupled at the foot of a 1-in-5 incline and hauled up by a horse-powered rope system (later replaced by a stationary steam engine, prompting Charles Dickens to remark on travelling on “a quaint old railway along part of which passengers are hauled by a rope”).

The line suffered mishaps including a derailment into a swamp and a herring train running out of control, and after a fatal 1864 accident on the Beckhole Incline, a safer route between Grosmont and Goathland opened in 1865. Beyond the trackbed is Beck Hole, where cottages cluster round a green with wandering sheep and quoits-playing locals, anchored by the Birch Hall Inn (serving as village shop and cafe). In 1858 two blast furnaces and 33 cottages were built here for an iron industry that collapsed after two years.

The moorland path above Beck Hole follows the Eller Beck Valley past Thomason Foss and Water Ark Foss before crossing a footbridge under the railway bridge towards Darnholm (where a shallow ford over Eller Beck is ideal for picnics). Ascending Mill Scar, you pass the 1865 railway cutting and reach Goathland Railway Station to view historic engines, rolling stock, a tiny signal box, water cranes, and the carriage restoration shed.

Climbing back onto open moorland, you pass the bulk of RAF Fylingdales Early Warning Station and Lilla Cross (a Bronze Age monolith turned into a Christian cross commemorating 7th-century Thane Lilla who died saving King Edwin). Walking beneath the railway past Abbot's House (built on a 1100 hermitage site), you cross fields surrounded by colorful moorland slopes back to Goathland's church.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.