Discover Herriot Country’s Special Place

Alf Wight OBE, (James Herriot) loved the North York Moors and travelled through the National Park many times on his calls to farms and homesteads on the Moors. This beautiful corner of Herriot Country has a rugged character, sweeping beauty, landscape that has visible, audible, sensory features and big open skies that are breath-taking by day, and also by night when the dark sky panorama is revealed.

This great diversity of landscape, an abundance of forest and woodland and wide sweeps of open heather moorland provide a rich and diverse countryside for recreation, a strong feeling of remoteness, tranquillity and a special mix of upland, lowland and coastal habitats that creates the environment for a variety of wildlife.

There are special landforms from the Ice Age, majestic coastal cliffs and sheltered harbours, settlements that reflect agricultural, fishing or mining past and a strong religious past and present with its ruined abbeys and ancient churches. There are distinctive skills, dialects, songs and customs and it’s a place of artistic, scientific, and literary inspiration that James Herriot’s stories of his life as a country vet bring to life.

The North York Moors National Park is a very special place and a ‘must visit’ part of your travel plans on the Herriot Country Trail.