North York Moors - Grosmont to Goathland to Lealhom (★★★★☆)

For this walk I would be following the route of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway out of Grosmont round to Goathland, where filming has been done for TV series like Heartbeat and films such as Harry Potter. Then I would head back and continue on round to Lealholm using the Esk Valley Walk.

The walk today starts at Grosmont - which was formerly an industrial town, with an iron works and blasts furnace, with railway lines constructed in order to get the iron from the mines, down to the works at Grosmont, and then off to the ports at Whitby and Middlesborough.

Eventually all this industry closed - and there aren't too many remaining indications of this industrial heritage, except the train line, which was re-opened in 1963 - and now runs as a popular heritage line, offering steam train rides through the steep valleys to Pickering.

Grosmont is connected to the main train network, with trains stopping here on their way between Middlesborough and Whitby - while the North Yorkshire Moors Railway trains run from Whitby to Pickering (sharing the main train network tracks on the stretch from Whitby to Grosmont).

As there are frequent steam trains ran along this section of track, you are pretty likely to see a steam train on any given walk - either in one of the stations or as it heads past you down the tracks. Generally you are most likely to see a train at one of the stations - but this walk means that you are likely to encounter a train in the wide, even if the view isn't perfect.

For this walk, I would initially be following the path of the heritage railway line, looping round at the far end and then coming back on the opposite side of the valley.

With this in mind, I head over the level crossing for the heritage line, cross over the River Murk Esk, and then head over and down a hill which the train line runs through via a tunnel.

The path then runs alongside the train line for a quarter of a mile, before it pulls off to the right, and starts following the route of an older train line - which ran closer to the river.

For the next few miles, the path continues along this old train route path - with the heritage line now running on higher ground on the left. A train passes by as I'm walking along this stretch, but while I can hear the noise of the steam, I can't see anything of it through the trees.

Eventually the path comes out at Beck Hole - and here I follow my now tried and tested route, turning off to the right at Beck Hole, to head out towards Mallyan Spout.

The route here includes quite a lot of ups and downs - and a fair amount of ascent will have been completed by the time we arrive at Goathland.

But it is not too far along this route until we arrive at a point where the path turns off to the left towards Goathland, or on to Mallyan Spout.

Since it is quiet today and not too far to go to reach the waterfall at Mallyan Spout, I continue round, scrambling over the rocks to reach Mallyan Spout waterfall.

Looking autumnal near Mal

When there hasn't been all that much rainfall, the waterfall can be little more than a gentle trickle, but it has been raining a lot recently, and so there is plenty of water coming down today.

After spending a bit of time watching the waterfall, I track back and head back to the turn towards Goathland. From here, it is not a particularly long walk to Goathland, but it is quite a big climb up to the top. 

This path releases us at The Mallyan Spout Hotel, and here I have two different onward routes. In both cases I turn left at the road, and if dry take the quick right across the fields, else if wet like today continue on down the road into the village, before turning right at the split in the road. On this wet-day route, I then head out along a minor track next to The Goathland Hotel.

Note that for a shorter walk, you can continue on to the train station at Goathland, and pick up a later section of the walk from there. Or cut back more directly to rejoin the route here at Beck Hole (turning left just before the station). In both cases it is probably worth paying a visit to the station if you haven't been, as that is the done thing in Goathland.

The next phase of the walk is to head along this track out of Goathland - and the alternate dry-day route through Goathland joins this track further along, bringing the two routes together again.

After this meeting point - and a while further down this path, we reach Sadler House, where this track has joined back up with the heritage line - and there are good views out across the tracks if you are luck enough to have a train pass while you are walking this section.

After here, the track joins up with the road, which is used to pass under the railway - and then the onward route is a left turn onto a footpath, not far after crossing over Eller Beck.

Heading back toward Goathland on the far side of the valley

This section of the route is in itself an attractive moorland walk - and takes a route that generally hugs the edge of the ridge, but occasionally dipping down to pass over one of the streams of water coming down off the hills.

Further along, I do get my first sight of a stream train, which is heading out from Goathland to Pickering on the line below. However, from my current position my view is slightly blocked by the trees.

Just ten minutes later, I reach a clearer section of track as I continue to work my way round to Goathland - and it is a shame the train hadn't passed while I was here, as this would have made for a much better vantage point.

A better vantage point, but no train

But continuing on, the path starts to dip down, meeting up with a road heading down into Goathland - and here the path cuts in towards Goathland more sharply, passing by Goathland station.

Goathland station

This is quite a good spot for spotting trains, as they will often spend a decent amount of time in the station here, but there are none here today as I head past.

The station itself may however be familiar to many of you, as it has been used in a lot of filming - and is probably most known these days for being the filming location for Hogsmeade (albeit with a certain amount of CGI editing) - with Hagrid wandering out from underneath that bridge to greet Harry in the first film.

I hadn't noticed Hogwarts when I was doing this walk

From here I head on round, following Mill Scar and stopping here on a bench, I get my best non-station shot of a train to date :

After a bit of a rest I continue, and head to the houses on the far side of the railway from Darnholm - where I then turn right to pick up another path as it climbs up onto the next section of the ridge.

This continues to follow the same arc round, with views out across both the railway track and the river, and after following the path through this stretch for a bit, I drop down into the village of Beck Hole (the same Beck Hole I passed on my way out).

Here I could rejoin with the same path I took out, but instead cross over the railway line, but do not quite go out so far across - instead taking a path heading north off a bend in the road, which joins up with the same route I took in from Grosmont slightly further along.

From here the route is just a repeat in reverse of the route I took out (although there is an alternate route you can take where you don't drop into Beck Hole, and instead meet up with the route out near Holm House - staying up on this ridge for most of the stretch up till Grosmont).

At Grosmont, I am early for the train home, and so cross over the railway tracks, but instead of turning into the station, continue on and follow this road round until I meet up with the Esk Valley Walk.

Here I join that trail, following a track that itself is following the path of the network rail train line running from Grosmont towards Middlesborough - and after heading under the railway, I head on and past Egton Manor into Egton Bridge.

Here there is a another station stop along this line, but as I still have plenty of time to the next train, I head on turning left with the Esk Valley Walk, but then turning right off this official path, to head along a road heading west. From this road I turn off to the left to cross the stepping stones and meet back up with the Esk Valley Walk.

Stepping stones at Egton Bridge

The River Esk at Egton Bridge

At the right time of year (autumn I believe - so today probably would have been a good day to see if there is activity), instead of turning left across the stepping stones, you can continue a bit further and then sit on the bench overlooking that stretch of river. Then if you are lucky you will see some leaping fish along this stretch - and it is quite a remarkable sight to see full sized fish popping up out of nowhere (although incredibly hard to photograph).

But on this walk today, the next section of the Esk Valley Walk heads out along a minor road, climbing up to Delves, where the path turns off to the right, and through East Arnecliff Woods.

A tough of gold in the trees here

This take us round to Glaisdale (where there is another stop on the train line if needed), and here we come out near the Arncliffe Arms - which we head past, and along a minor road directly opposite. Along here, we turn off into more woods that are hugging the River Esk, before coming out at Thorneywaite.

It used to be that you would come out through someone's garden at this next section - and in winter I always felt really bad about walking across their lawn - so I'm pleased to say that there is a new route which bypasses the houses entirely. 

But here the path turns right, onto another minor road and heads down to a ford - where the train line passes close by.

From here there is a bit of a climb back up, and round, along the edge of the river - now in pastureland - heading through the next farm, and out along a track to Lealholm.

This will be my final destination for the day as there isn't enough time to make it to the next station down the line, but I do still have a bit more time to spare, and so rather than heading straight to the station, I instead head round on the longer route, via Lealholm's own set of stepping stones.

Two sets of stepping stones in one day!

Eventually I make it round to the train station and, after a bit of a wait, I pick up train on its way back to Middlesborough from Grosmont, and head home.

Enjoyment Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ★ / 5

If you are interested in exploring more of the Esk Valley Walk, there is a writeup of a longer stretch along this trail that overlaps with the section in this write-up. That longer section runs from Commondale to Whitby along the Esk Valley.

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 94 OS Landranger map (links redirect to Amazon). The route is in general well way-marked.