A recent survey by Continental Tyres found that the North York Moors was voted the third best road trip in the UK. (1) If you’re visiting Yorkshire, a drive across these desolate moors is a must.
On this page we’ll share the story of our road trip in the area and highlight the best things to see and do in the city of York and the famously spooky seaside town of Whitby – Dracula and all.
Let’s explore the wilderness of the North York Moors…
Camping in York city centre
Before we start off on the drive across the moors, let’s tell you about base camp…
We’re country folk and the idea of staying on a campsite slap bang in the middle of a busy city doesn’t sound like our idea of heaven. But we were in for a pleasant surprise…
The Rowntree Club Site is within a ten-minute walk of York city centre and close to the River Ouse. It is easy to find using Google Maps and has all the facilities you’ll ever need.
It’s one of those campsites where you book in at reception then drive around to find whatever pitch you like. This means that if you then leave your pitch and don’t mark it with one of those reserved signs, it could well be taken by someone else by the time you get back.
Just something to bear in mind if you’re popping out for the day in your van and don’t want anyone to take your spot.
What is there to see and do in York?
We explored the centre of York over two days and some of the highlights were…
- A spooky ghost tour of the city – well worth it if you like that sort of thing
- A visit to the castle museum – this is a must!
- An amble through ‘The Shambles’ and ‘Little Shambles’ – famous parts of the city with narrow streets lined with medieval buildings
- Enjoying a beer in the house where Guy Fawkes was born
- Soaking up the atmosphere of Evensong at York Minster
Hobo Trudi’s research tells us that The Shambles is an old term for a meat market. During its varied history, this area was once filled with slaughter houses and butcheries. The meat hooks are still there.
Many of the buildings are medieval, although the original shop fronts have been altered throughout the centuries. The tiny lanes running from The Shambles are called Snickleways.
York itself originates from a permanent Roman town. Outside York Minster, quite anonymously amidst the splendour is a Roman column. Find it on the city side of the building, across the road.
Saxons and Vikings also called York home, albeit by different names. However, the main period of strengthening and development was during the Medieval era.
Naturally the Georgians and Victorians added their own architectural fingerprint – which is always one of painstaking beauty. The modern era has not sullied too much of it, thankfully!
One more thing to mention before we get onto the actual road trip across the North York Moors…
Flooding in York: a real danger!
Near to the campsite reception, you’ll see a plaque that marks the water depth when the River Ouse flooded back in 2000. 4 feet of water would ruin your motorhome! There have been several other major floods since.
With the river being just across the road from the campsite, there’s nothing to stop the water flooding onto the site, resulting in a full evacuation. Imagine that in the middle of the night!
Luckily enough, we had good weather throughout our visit in 2019 and heard that improvements to flood defences were about to commence.
We understand that these flood defences are now complete, making the centre of York much safer from the threat of flooding. (2)
The drive across the North York Moors
So, onto the drive across the moors…
We set off on a bright February morning – this being a Valentine’s adventure – heading north-east out of York along the A64. Then, just after Malton, we took a left turn onto the A169. (Zoom in on the map below).
This is where the road trip properly begins.
By the time you venture just north of Pickering you enter the desolation of the moors. And how we loved it! Not another soul in sight.
There’s something in the human spirit that yearns for these untainted wild places. As Roberts MacFarlane quotes in his best selling book Mountains of the Mind…
All the most exciting charts and maps have places on them that are marked ‘Unexplored’
It’s one of the main reasons many of us motorhomers try wild camping to get back to nature and claim a secret part of the world just for ourselves.
But, unlike the British explorers of old who would leave their mark – a type of imperialist graffiti to tell the world they had been there – us van-lifers should leave no trace. And you wouldn’t want to taint the wilderness of these moors anyway.
The desolation – a palpable presence – imbues the air of the North York Moors with the mystery of ‘The Other’. It becomes your travelling companion as you venture across these unmarked places.
RELATED CONTENT: How to wild camp in a motorhome and stay out of trouble
Can you drive a motorhome over the North York Moors?
If you’re wondering about the state of the roads and whether they are suitable for motorhome driving, the A169 makes for a pleasant meander through the wilderness.
Apart from one hairpin bend (called the Hole of Horcum) it’s pretty easy going. This is the main route across the moors and follows close to the North York Moors Railway.
We couldn’t resist pulling over and soaking up the wilderness of this place. Nothing but moorland for miles and miles…
If you have the time, we suggest you head east into Goathland and board the steam train for a spectacular scenic ride.
Indeed, if you have confidence in negotiating the smaller roads – and your van is up to the task – Goathland, and the roads heading further north-westward, make for a lovely detour.
However, we had to leave by the same route because the other way out of the village (heading north-east and back on to the A169) was signposted as a 33% incline. That’s just too much for our old VW van, as we’d already found out before…
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Whitby Abbey
Once you’re back on the main road you’ll soon reach the seaside town of Whitby.
It was here that we noticed a red warning light flashing on our dash. The temperature gauge suggested we were overheating but no steam was rising from the engine. Strange…
Hobo Trudi wanted to go home! But, in the end, all we needed to do was top up the coolant level which had gotten a bit low.
In our early days of vanlife, we didn’t carry coolant, so water had to suffice. Nowadays, we make sure we carry a spare bottle of the right coolant for our van, just in case.
With the warning light back off, we parked in the ‘Abbey Headland’ car park (which is part tarmac, part grassy field). One motorhome here was struggling off the damp ground. We suspected they had camped overnight, and why not? People have inhabited this headland for 3,000 years.
Unfortunately, the ruins of the 13th century Abbey were closed but we still got some great photos. Just looking at it sends a shiver down the spine and it’s easy to see – and feel – the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The town of Whitby
With the ruins closed, we wandered down the steps from the abbey toward the harbour and the town.
Trinity lighthouse was open to visitors. However, people were queued right out the door and on up the spiral stairs.
Obviously those coming down the spiral were having to negotiate the narrow part of the steps. Rather than stay to watch the inevitable accident, we put the lighthouse on our ‘must see’ list for next time.
After a leisurely stroll soaking up the atmosphere around the town we had a meal – the famous Whitby fish and chips – before making our way back to the van.
Other attractions and places to see in the North York Moors
If we’d have known it at the time we would have headed out to Robin Hood’s Bay along the B1447 where there is a beautiful campsite looking out to sea.
Indeed, this would make for a great base to explore the whole North York Moors area and coastline if you don’t fancy staying in the centre of York like we did.
Or we would have headed west along the A171 and popped into The Moors National Park Centre at Danby.
But on this visit, after leaving Whitby, we drove south past Scarborough then west along the A64 again, continuing the round trip back to York. We hit heavy traffic well before the city, which was quite a jolt back to reality.
See, the North York Moors and the town of Whitby had transported us to an ‘other-worldly’ place. A place we wanted to stay for much, much longer.
Like the mountains, the moors have an allure that calls you back. Perhaps it’s because they mirror the aloneness that resides in us all, if only we’re brave enough to confront our own deep mysteries, or what George Eliot called, “the unmapped country within us”.
Check out our other favourite road trips in the UK
Have you driven across the North York Moors? Did you ever get flooded in York? What do you think of Whitby? Let us know your story in the comments section below.
If you liked this road trip story please remember to check out our other best road trips in the UK.
Notes:
(1) Continental Tyres road trip survey, reported in The Independent newspaper https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/uk-top-road-trips-poll-b1885306.html
(2) Info about flood defence improvements in York https://www.gov.uk/government/news/2000-properties-in-york-now-better-protected-with-foss-barrier-upgrade-and-new-flood-defences#:~:text=Following%20the%20devastating%20floods%20of,the%20Rivers%20Ouse%20and%20Foss.
For more on York visit the York Tourist Information
And here’s the Whitby Tourist Information site.
