Scarborough and the North York Moors (Part 2)
In which I am introduced to ruined abbeys, old bridges, wild forests and the Hole of Horcum, a scenic railway, and the National Centre for Birds of Prey
ON the way to Scarborough, I drove through the lovely countryside of the Howardian Hills, the North York Moors National Park and the Vale of Pickering that lies between: a broad flat plain marked out by the towns of Helmsley, Pickering and Malton.
The Vale of Pickering used to be a lake, thousands of years ago. These days, it is drained by the eastward-flowing river Rye, which becomes the Derwent east of the Vale and turns around to flow southward through Malton and the Howardian Hills via the Kirkham Gorge, where the ruins of Kirkham Abbey and Kirkham Priory stand.
The first stage of my journey was from York City to Malton via the Kirkham Gorge. While still in the Kirkham Gorge I went past Kirkham Priory and Abbey, which a local English Heritage sign described as “stunning Augustinian ruins,” about seven kilometres before Malton.
My photos from the road don’t really do justice to Kirkham Priory and its Abbey. I must come back and have a proper look.
West of Malton you can also visit Castle Howard, after which the Howardian Hills are named. Castle Howard is the great country pile where the 1981 Granada TV series Brideshead Revisited and the 2008 feature film of the same name were both filmed. It’s in a better state of repair than the abbey and priory at Kirkham!
From Malton to Pickering, across the Vale of Pickering, was about 12 km.