Exploring :: A Weekend in Yorkshire … Goathland

Hi there everyone 😀

Following our visit to Nostell Priory we continued our journey to Pickering and were soon checked in to our room at The Premier Inn just outside of town … where we had a couple of hours to unpack and chill out before meeting up with everyone in The White Swan for dinner. 

We had a very nice meal and made plans for the first full day of our break. Our original plan had been to have a trip on the steam railway but the cost put us off a bit and, in any case, all of the trains running were diesel … as a result of potential fire risk along the track. Plan B was to catch The Coastliner bus to Goathland … which would take a scenic tour across the moors and only cost us £2 a head.  Our friends were catching it from Pickering and we had a bus stop just outside The Premier Inn … which was very handy. 

We weren’t having too early a start so we opted to have the ‘all you could eat’ Premier Inn breakfast before heading for the bus stop in plenty of time …

It was a glorious morning and the view from the bus stop wasn’t too bad either …

Our bus was due at 11.38 and I downloaded the app to track its progress so I knew how long we had to wait … only to find it was running over half an hour late. After much deliberation Plan C was brought into play. Let’s go back and get the cars and … we’ll see you in Goathland 🙈

Eventually Plan C had us in Goathland, where a scarecrow festival was in play …

We’d managed to have a good wander round the village shops before we finally saw the bus arrive …

The plan then was to have a wander to Beck Hole for a pit stop in the very quirky Birch Hall Inn. Whilst Martin and I were looking forward to the walk … it was a mile each way … 

… we are far less fit than our compatriots and our hearts sank a bit when we saw the name of the trail …

We were not deterred and decided to give it a go. It was a lovely looking walk, it was a beautiful day and it looked like a gentle downhill slope …

We were about half way when we decided that actually … a mile downhill on crutches in pretty warm sunshine is actually a fair old walk … add to that the fact it would be uphill all the way back made us decide that we’d turn back and take the car to the pub … and that is what we did …

It actually took us less time than we’d expected and we were soon sat in the sunshine enjoying a cold drink and a sandwich … with this as our view …

It really was a lovely spot and we couldn’t resist the first of our catch up selfies on the bridge …

… and a quick photo with Rupert …

We took the car back … with one additional passenger … and went to have a quick look at the steam railway station …

… before meeting back up with the walkers. 

It was then back to The Premier Inn for us for a quick siesta and freshen up before heading to the van for a BBQ in the sunshine … 

We ate, drank and chatted the evening away ending with plans to meet the following morning in Thornton-le-Dale for another day of mooching about in the sunshine and a nice lunch 😀

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