Grosmont Rail Trail

Grosmont Rail Trail

Route: Goathland to Grosmont Rail Trail

Area: North Yorkshire

Date of walk: 23rd May 2019

Walkers: Andrew and Gilly

Distance: 5.1 miles

Ascent: 150 feet

Weather: Weak sunshine

Today’s walk was a linear one, made possible by the excellent North Yorkshire Moors Railway. NYMR is 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 12.30pm 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. Thanks to NYMR for facilitating such a wonderful walk, and for adding so much interest and enjoyment to it

For other walks here, visit my Find Walks page and enter the name in the ‘Search site’ box

Click on the icon below for the route map (subscribers to OS Maps can view detailed maps of the route, visualise it in aerial 3D, and download the GPX file. Non-subscribers will see a base map)

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