I am an incredibly lucky lady. Living in North Yorkshire I am surrounded by rural beauty which (in my humble opinion) can’t be rivalled. One of my non-resolutions (I don’t make resolutions because I break them) is to photograph more of the beautiful places around us and to facilitate that I’m already planning drives and walks out! We have some great places to visit.
Sutton Bank
Sutton Bank forms the highest point of the Hambleton Hills and is the most commonly used route for us (I’m in Thirsk) to get up to the North Yorkshire Moors / along to the coast (just over an hour away). It’s something of a steep drive up with a 1 in 4 (25% gradient) and features a hairpin bend but oh my days it is worth it! There is a visitor centre at the top, you can watch members of the gliding club set off, fly and land and it is the starting point for some truly fabulous scenic walks.
And the views!
Just ten minutes or so up the road this is one of our favourite “jump in the car and go” driving destinations.
The Hole of Horcum
On the way across the North Yorkshire Moors (which is beautiful in itself) you come across the site of a 400 foot deep natural bowl, just over half a mile across. Some say it was formed via an asteroid long ago and some say Wade the Giant scooped up a massive handful of earth during a row with his wife, to throw at her (I love the latter explanation). A bit of a drive it’s definitely worth the effort,
There are so many fabulous drives local to me, many of them ending up at landmarks or well-known areas of natural beauty such as these however sometimes we just like to pack a picnic, make sure we’re organised (and covered www.chill.ie/car-insurance/ ) and just drive! Doing this is how we’ve found some fabulous little scenic routes, old villages churches that don’ have their own websites or claims to fame yet should still be appreciated, parks and rivers and grassy knolls…..
If you head up towards Masham and take a wrong turn, for example, you might find yourself on a wonderfully scenic route around the countryside with plenty of places to set down, eat your lunch and enjoy the local wildlife (deer included). The same can be said for Richmond (Richmond, North Yorkshire, not Richmond “down south”).
Sometimes ditching the tourist guides and the local websites and just setting out to see where you find yourself can be a wonderful thing!
