The North York Moors contains some of the finest geology in the world. The varied landscapes of the Moors owe much of their appearance to the underlying geology, the results of over 200 million years of Earth history. Many locations on the moors bear the scars of human exploitation of the many resources contained within these rocks. The mining and quarrying of ironstone, alum, coal, building stone and jet have all left their telltale signs on the Yorkshire Moors.

The rivers in the North York Moors have an amazing range of characters: small becks babbling over moorland, swollen torrents thundering through deep wooded gorges, and slow waters quietly meandering through flat valleys. There are two main river catchments on the Moors which are located side of the central moorland watershed. The Esk catchment in the north and the upper tributaries of the Derwent catchment on the south are the two main area on the Yorkshire Moors. In addition, the Yorkshire Moors has becks on the western edge run into the Swale catchment, small becks along the east coast run straight out to the North Sea and the Leven in the northwest runs into the Tees.
Sections of river in the south of the Park can “dry up” in dry spells, disappearing through “swallow holes” in the limestone. Clear shallow water can soon turn to murky brown torrents. The Esk can rise to flood levels as it did in October/November 2000 flooding houses and sweeping away fences trees, even whole sections of stone walls. In 1930/31 the Esk flood was so great it swept away many of the road and rail bridges in the valley.

Danby is home to The Moors Centre, a superb National Park Visitor Centre set in idyllic surroundings on the bank of the river Esk. Facilities include exhibitions, nature trails, walks and events; tearooms, toilets and parking. Danby is also famous as the home of Canon Atkinson, 19th century author and cleric. Nearby is Danby Castle, an early 14th century palace/fortress of the Latimers and Nevilles. Duck Bridge is a mediaeval packhorse bridge over the Esk. The Neville family coat of arms can still be seen on the parapet. Danby Watermill is about 350 years old and is the only remaining watermill working on the River.

Among the old inns in Thirsk still in existence are the eighteenth century Three Tuns and Golden Fleece.Today, Thirsk is a delightful market town centred around an cobbled market place with an interesting range of shops, cafes and places to visit. The town square has traditional coaching inns, and on Mondays including Bank Holidays and Saturdays there is an excellent open air market with a wide variety of market stalls.

Thirsk is ideally situated on the south-western edge of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park., making Thirsk an excellent base for walkers who want to explore this area of North Yorkshire.

The castle was already badly dilapidated when the Civil War began, a process that was accelerated by the removal of the remaining lead, wood and iron to make good the defences of Scarborough Castle. Pickening Church also has a complete set of medieval wall paintings to visit and enjoy

Another popular area for walkers in North Yorkshire is the North Yorkshire Moors. The North Yorkshire Moors are a plateau of moorland bounded by the Hambleton and Cleveland Hills on the west and the North Sea on the east. The Yorkshire Moors doesn’t have any mountains and lakes like the Yorkshire Dales. The Yorkshire Moors instead comprises of isolated area of moorland, interspersed with tranquil dales and woodland. The landscape of the Yorkshire Moors varies from the wild moors high on the hills to the green patchworks of farms throughout the area.

There are many historic houses and ruined castles and monasteries to visit, with the towns such as Guisborough, Saltburn, Scarborough, Helmsley and Thirsk located throughout the Yorkshire Moors also worth a visit. Walkers have over 1,400 miles (almost 2,300 km) of public paths and tracks to choose in the North Yorkshire Moors. They range from moorland paths to good concreted paths. Also, there is 23,000 hectares of Forestry Commission land which has good footpaths on it for the walker to explore and use to access this area. In addition, there are 45 miles of coast paths at the eastern side of Yorkshire Moors for all walkers to explore and enjoy.

A famous walk is the Lyke Walk where you can do a 40 mile walk across the top of the Moors in one complete day. This traditionally starts at Osmotherly and ends in Ravenscar on the coast. Another famous walk is The Falling Foss Forest Walk circular walk near Whitby. This takes in the Dramatic Falling Foss Waterfall, Littlebeck and Maybeck on the walk. This walk is set in broad-leaved woodland valleys of the National Park with grassland slopes on the banks of the becks making it an ideal place for a picnic.