On Top of the Moors …

Thursday March 27, 2025

We’ve decided this cottage isn’t as clean as it should be. There are cobwebs in corners, and the occasional daddy-longlegs has surprised me. While it’s comfortable enough, it doesn’t feel as welcoming as Herbert Cottage or Yew Tree Cottage did. For the money, we expected better. Hey ho and all that.

Today we drove up into the moors (via Kirby Moorside – a mecca for antique shops – and Hutton-le-Hole) to meet Grant’s cousin (on his birth mother’s side) and her husband. Val and I have been corresponding since she got in touch following an Ancestry match. She has memories of Grant’s mother and was able to give us a photo of her and Grant’s grandparents.

Once we hit the moors, the scenery is bleakly stunning, and just outside Hutton-le-Hole, we stop for photos and to get blown away.

The pub they’d chosen for us to meet was The Lion in Blakey Ridge. It reminded me a lot of Tan Hill Inn and, like Tan Hill, is the sort of pub that gets snowed in from time to time.

The Lion Inn is a family-owned 16^th-century free-house located at the highest point of the North York Moors National Park. At 1,325 feet, it’s also the highest point for most walkers doing the coast-to-coast. Plus, the views of Farndale and Rosedale are breathtaking.

Sitting on the edge of the ridge opposite the pub is High Blakey House. Gary told us it does accommodation for walkers.

In the distance we saw a line of smoke, similar to what we’d seen in the Cairngorms. Gary said they were burning off the heather. They do this at this time of the year to encourage new growth, which encourages game birds, which is good for the shooting season. I can’t help rolling my eyes at this.

The risk, he said, is that the fires get out of control and the peat catches alight, in which case, it can burn for ages.

It’s a lovely catch-up and they couldn’t have chosen a better pub to do it in.

Grant has a massive baked potato with chilli, cheese and butter. At £8.95 it’s great value. I opt for a pork sandwich with apple sauce and gravy.

We drive home via Castleton and Goathland, stopping for views near Danby and at the farm shop just outside Pickering for coffee and a shared slice of ginger sponge.

Once home I head out for a long-ish walk along the laneways – the sort of walk Philly Barker would take most afternoons with Bally, her cocker spaniel. As I’m walking down beside the crops, three women – mother and her daughters – come cantering up the lane. They stop their horses and we chat a while. I make a mental note to use the scene in the next Philly book.

For dinner tonight, we went back to the Stone Trough Inn. This time I had the steak onglet with mushrooms, tomato and jus, and Grant opted for the fish and chips with mushy peas.

Afterwards we got talking to Matt, the manager, and when I said I’d been wanting to try wild garlic, he popped out the back to the kitchen and brought me out some to nibble on. He gets it from the woodland on the other side of Kirkham station.

The stats…

Temperature: 6-16 … although it was freezing up on Blakey Ridge

Miles travelled: 80

*Even though we work in kms in Australia, all signage in the UK is in miles, so that’s what I’m going with.

These posts are taken directly from my travel journal … you can find the series here.