God's Own Weekend: 48 hours in North Yorkshire

A recent Condé Nast Traveller feature on Yorkshire’s best hotels set me musing on how many of them sit within striking distance of Ampleforth. Proof, if it were needed, that many of us had the good sense to spend our formative years in the most enviable corner of England.

Few places rival North Yorkshire for variety and charm. Within hours of leaving the din of London or Manchester, you can be standing on a moor that seems to go on forever, wandering through a medieval market town or watching the North Sea lap against a Victorian pier. Wild yet welcoming, ancient yet alive, it’s the perfect weekend escape.

Your first stop should be York. You could actually spend all weekend here and still feel you’ve barely begun. The Roman walls offer a stroll through two millennia of history, while the crooked Shambles looks as though it was designed by slightly inebriated carpenters. Inside York Minster, coloured light pours through medieval glass, and the tower view stretches across the Vale of York to the dales and moors beyond.

All that heritage demands refreshment, and Betty’s Tea Rooms has been obliging since 1919. Its art-deco poise makes you nostalgic for more glamorous days. For those who prefer flat whites to fine china, numerous coffee shops line the streets.

From York, a gentle drive north brings you to Helmsley, a market town familiar to many SHAC alumni and seemingly designed for postcards with honey-stone cottages, deli windows that tempt you into financial recklessness, and the ruins of Helmsley Castle presiding above it all. The Walled Garden, lovingly restored after years of neglect, bursts with colour from spring to autumn. Lunch there or at the Feversham Arms followed perhaps by a visit to their renowned spa.

A short drive west leads to Kilburn, home of Yorkshire’s celebrated craftsman Robert “Mouseman” Thompson whose work permeates the Abbey and College. In the 1920s, Thompson began carving a tiny mouse on each piece of furniture after remarking that the humble rodent was “the only creature that worked as hard as he did.” A century later, his family’s workshops still scent the village with oak and linseed. The Mouseman Visitor Centre is part museum, part shrine to Yorkshire craftsmanship and part retail paradise.

Then it’s time to trade wood for sky. The North York Moors remain one of England’s most haunting landscapes with purple heather in summer and smoky greys in winter. For pure nostalgia, board the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, a steam line puffing from Pickering to Whitby through cinematic valleys. You’ll recognise Goathland station as Hogsmeade, should you be travelling with Harry Potter-inclined offspring.

And so on to Whitby, half fishing port, half Gothic novel. Climb the 199 steps to Whitby Abbey, whose skeletal arches brood magnificently over the sea, and you’ll see why Dracula began here. Down below, the harbour bustles with life. Chip shops frying cod so fresh it might still be plotting its escape, artisan jewellers, and pubs echoing with sea shanties. Dinner at the Magpie Café remains a Yorkshire rite of passage.

If time allows, follow the coast south to Robin Hood’s Bay, where cobbled lanes tumble down towards a tiny beach once favoured by smugglers. Today it’s all galleries, tearooms and cottages with nautical names like Seaweed House. Walk the sands at low tide, breathe the salt air and reward your effort with a pint at the Bay Hotel, even if you’ve completed only the final half-mile of the Coast-to-Coast trail.

For your last evening, head inland to Harrogate, the spa town that manages to be both genteel and modern. The Victorians came to “take the waters” but today’s visitors take the wine list. The crescents are elegant, the Turkish Baths gloriously steamy, and the Valley Gardens so immaculate you hesitate to tread on the grass. For dinner try The Ivy for a bit of sparkle.

And then, far too soon, after Mass in the Abbey Church and a hearty Sunday lunch at the Fairfax in Gilling or White Swan in Ampleforth, it’s time to go. North Yorkshire is England in miniature. Roman ruins and Gothic grandeur, moors and markets, sea mist and Sunday roast. It restores, refreshes and reminds you that the good life was always right on our doorstep so why not come back and live it all again?

 

Where to Stay and Where to Eat

Within a few miles of Ampleforth lies a cluster of remarkable inns and restaurants that prove Yorkshire now matches its scenery with sophistication:

• The Black Swan at Oldstead – Michelin-starred chef Tommy Banks turns homegrown produce into small miracles of modern Yorkshire cuisine.
• The Abbey Inn at Byland – Banks’s elegantly restored inn overlooking Byland Abbey’s ruins; equal parts serenity and seasonality.
• The Star Inn at Harome – Andrew Pern’s thatched, fire-lit classic of local ingredients and wry Yorkshire humour.
• The Pheasant, Harome – Just across the duck pond from the Star, a boutique hideaway of polished comfort and country calm.
• The Owl, Hawnby - spectacular views and breathtaking walks end with delicious locally produced food at this pub with rooms just a few miles outside Helmsley.
• Myse, Hovingham – Combining stylish design and genuine warmth - "Hugely impressive on-trend cooking in a converted village inn" - Good Food Guide

Together they prove that “God’s Own County” has perfected the art of divine hospitality.

While you're in the area, if you're looking for the absolute Ampleforth experience, you can't go wrong with a visit to the fantastic Ampleforth Abbey Tea Room in the Alban Roe House visitor centre, open 7 days a week.