Our final day in the moors was reserved to visit Goathland, otherwise known as Aidensfield (Heartbeat’s location) or Hogwarts Station (the train station was used in the Harry Potter films).
We would have loved to have arrived in the village on the steam train (North York Moors Railway), but the cost was prohibitive unfortunately. Even just to travel 1 stop between Grosmont and Goathland would have cost us £26 return…. There were plenty of trains running though so obviously plenty of people paying for this. Apparently it wasn’t always this expensive – it appears that the Harry Potter effect has caused the increase in prices.
We saw the steam train for the 1st time at Grosmont – perfect timing actually as we were at the front of the queue when the level crossing gates closed! We do love to see the trains in operation so this was an absolute treat.
Next it was a race to get to Goathland before the train! We managed it – just.. Parking by the road and running up to the bridge, which is where I took the main picture from 🙂 Another train was coming the other way so we saw both in the station. Heading back to the car we spotted a waterfall which we tried to get a bit closer. I had to give up as I picked a wrong spot to place my foot and nearly sank!
We then carried on in the car towards the village itself, starting with the train station which I had a quick look at – unfortunately it didn’t really mean much to me as I haven’t watched any Harry Potter film all the way through (I’ve maybe seen 15-20 minutes in total)…. See photos below 🙂
We then tried to park in the village, which is impossible! There is a national parks car park, but we aren’t prepared to pay £4 when we’re only staying half hour or so. So we headed back to where we’d initially parked and walked back in. The 1st landmarks we spotted were the garage and the pub (I did use to watch Heartbeat!), and then there’s the row of shops, outside of which 2 of the old police cars are on display.
The original police house and the police station weren’t located in Goathland, and the lady in the shop also told us how lovely all the stars were and how they were pretty much became just a part of everyday village life in the end. She hadn’t ever been tempted to be an extra though because of the long hours 🙂
We were going to walk down to the church and also towards Beck Hole, but the heavens opened so we abandoned this plan and headed back to the car. We would have seen where the original train track was – abandoned partly because of the dangerous nature of having to pull the trains up the steep incline!
You can walk between Grosmont and Goathland – click here for the route to take.
We headed back via some amazing roads across the moors, passing through Stape and Egton Bridge. We also saw 1 of the oldest bridges on the moors, known as Beggars Bridge. This bridge has a romantic tale associated with it concerning a young man who was unable to ford the river to kiss his sweetheart goodbye on leaving the area to make his fortune. On returning to claim his bride he built the bridge so that no other young man would suffer in the same way 🙂
We managed to cover a fair expanse of the moors during our time here and, as a result, seen some absolutely stunning views. We would highly recommend a visit to this area 🙂
From here we moved on to Northumberland, inland to Hadrian’s Wall country. We visited a number of Roman Forts (Corbridge Roman Town, Chesters Fort & Bridge and Housesteads), all different in their own way and actually far more interesting than we expected! We also visited Beamish Museum, the Angel of the North and Newcastle. So keep an eye out for my posts on these experiences 🙂
Keep travelling 🙂
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