5.1 Miles Linear Walk

Credit to Andrews Walks for sharing.

Start this walk by jumping on board the NYMR, a historic railway stretching for 18 miles through the heart of the North York Moors National Park, from Pickering via Levisham, Newton Dale and Goathland to Grosmont, with a further 6-mile extension to Whitby. It is the largest preserved heritage railway in the UK in terms of route mileage operated and passenger numbers.

We parked in the station car park in Grosmont and bought 3 tickets (one of them a dog ticket) for the 12.30 pm train to Goathland. NYMR owns a fleet of both steam and diesel trains, and we were pleased that it was a steam train which pulled into the station. The journey ended all too soon as we disembarked at Goathland and set out on the journey back to Grosmont.

After walking through Goathland village, we joined the Grosmont Rail Trail, which is easy walking on the flat throughout. When we reached Beck Hole, we made a short diversion of 1 mile or so in order to visit Thomason Foss waterfall, set in an idyllic location. The path is rocky and slippery towards the end and is probably best avoided in very wet weather.

After admiring the waterfall, we climbed back up to Beck Hole and left the road to follow a path beside the Murk Esk (a tributary of the River Esk). Shortly after this, we joined the Rail Trail again. The easy path meandered its way along the valley, with no ups and downs, as this is the site of a former railway line and so takes the line of least resistance.

Eventually, our destination, Grosmont, came into view. We followed the path back into the village to arrive at the station car park and journey’s end. Use route information in combination with judgement and a paper map.

The publishers accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions or for any injuries or accidents that occur whilst following this walk.