Monday on the Yorkshire Moors

The weather forecast seemed suitable so we headed towards the Moors today.

Drove from Ripon accross the Vale of York, passed the turnoff to Kilburn (the Mouseman village) and up Sutton Bank onto the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. It was very windy on the edge of the bank and so we kept moving to one of our favorite spots - Helmsley - a little village with some interesting castle ruins in the township and the Rieveaux Abbey ruins (huge) just outside the town.

 One of our favorite eating spots (The Tudor Rose) was closed so we chose our second best for a quick cuppa after a walk round the town. It is a delightful place with a small stream running through the middle of the town centre. There is a very pretty church and lytchgate in the town. The rather terrific antiquarian book shop was also closed - probably just as well, it is very tempting. We did not see any sign of the cat which befriended Andrew and Matt one year when we visited. Might have been inside keeping warm (the cat I mean).

From there we continued along the road to the coast as far as Pickering. Here Arthur wanted to visit the castle ruins. We have been to Pickering a number of times - it is the starting point for the North York Moors Railway - but never stopped for the castle. It was closed as far as getting inside was concerned but we walked round the outside - quite enough in this cold.

From here we headed back towards Abbey Cottage calling past Rieveaux in the process. Altogether not a long day out but very enjoyable revisiting places that have such a lot of memories for us. Hope it won't be our last visit.