Kirkbymoorside & Moors

Kirkbymoorside sits on the western edge of the North York Moors National Park in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, beside the A170. The town developed as a market centre and retains a long main street of shops, cafés and pubs set around a compact market place. The parish church of St Gregory occupies a raised position above the town and stone-built terraces and narrow lanes give a clear sense of the settlement’s age and function as a service centre for surrounding farms.

The surrounding moors are open heather and grassland divided by dry stone walls and punctuated by scattered barns and small woodland. A network of footpaths and bridleways leaves from the market square and climbs onto the upland heath, where ridgelines give broad moorland views and walkers meet the pattern of grouse moors and sheep pastures. Lowland fringes around the town are mixed farmland and paddocks; local events and markets still link town and countryside and provide access points for day walks and longer routes into the moors.