Explore the Area around Church House Farm
EXPLORE THE JURASSIC COAST: with fantastic beaches for fossil hunting at Runswick Bay, Sandsend, and Robin Hood's Bay. As well as Whitby which offers whale watching, harbour boat trips, Captain Cook Memorial Museum, and Whitby Museum; with displays of the town's whaling, shipping, and geological history, including some impressively large fossils. Saltburn-by-the-sea is a Victorian seaside town with a 4-miles stretch of unbroken sands and Scarborough is Britain's older resort with traditional seaside attractions. Explore the coastal paths along the Cleveland Way National Trail with the most spectacular coastal views.
For activities: take a look at Yorkshire Coast Nature for seabirds and whale adventures, birdwatching and wildlife tours and boat trips, workshops and discovery days; North Yorkshire Water Park for paddle boarding, kayaking, sailing, aqua park, zipline, climbing wall, cycle path and lakeside walk; Saltburn Surf School for surf lessons and hire of equipment; Go Ape Dalby Forest for tree top adventures.
WALKING: is the best way to experience our beautiful landscape here at Church House Farm with footpaths from our door across the stunning moorland. Walk to Danby Lodge National Park Centre, Danby Castle and Danby Beacon with panoramic views across the moor and sea. St Hilda's Way is a 43-mile walk which passes by Church House Farm and ends at Whitby Abbey. The Esk Valley Walk follows the river Esk from its source high on the Moors to the coast. Complete stages of the Coast to Coast and the Cleveland Way routes or walk up to Roseberry Topping.
The Danby Lodge National Park Centre has a wealth of information, maps, books and guides to the local area as well as exhibitions, gallery, cafe, shop, adventure play area. North York Moors National Park website has a series of Walking Guides available to download with many walking routes close to the Esk Valley Railway enabling you to return to your starting point. Check out Share With Care a guide to help everyone enjoy the national park and keep it special and perfect for getting close to nature. Adventures for the Soul offers guided walks, yoga and dark skies everts.
HISTORY Our favourite historic sites and museums to visit are Whitby Abbey, Pickering Castle, Rievaulx Abbey, Helmsley Castle, Scarborough Castle, Mount Grace Priory and Bylands Abbey. There is also Scampston Hall, Nunnington Hall, Beningborough Hall, Castle Howard and The Yorkshire Arboretum; as well as the historic city of York founded by the Romans with a huge gothic cathedral, Jorvik Viking Centre, Railway Museum and Castle Museum.
Close by is the pretty village of Lealholm, Hutton-le-Hole with Ryedale Folk Museum, Lastingham with St Mary's Church famous for its eleventh-centre crypt, and Grosmont with Geall Gallery.
The world famous North York Moors Railway runs from Pickering to Whitby, through Grosmont, where you can visit the engine sheds, where the steam locomotives are maintained and restored; as well as the ever popular Goathland with nearby Mallyan Spout Waterfall.
WILDLIFE: Church House Farm is a fantastic place for wildlife from the buzzards, kites and kestrels that soar high above our heads to the swallows and swifts who return to us each year our greatest delight is a glimpse of the barn owls or hearing the hooting of the tawny owls and little owls sitting in the big oak tree.
Small mammals we commonly see are rabbits, hares, moles, stoats, pipistrelle and lesser horseshoe bats. The wildlife pond has mallards and moorhens and around the property we see pheasants, starlings, goldfinch, chaffinch, pied wagtails, grey wagtails, spotted flycatchers, wrens, robins, blackbirds, cold tits, blue tits, sparrows and pheasants to keep us entertained.
Then look closely and you will see butterflies and moths including the hummingbird hawkmoth, dragonflies and at least a dozen species of bumblebees, and insects galore!
CYCLING AND HORSE RIDING: the national park has cycle routes on country roads, bridleways, moor and woodland tracks with cafes and traditional pubs to stop off including the nearby Yorkshire Cycle Hub cafe. There is the Moors to Sea Cycle Network and Dalby Forest and Guisborough Forest offering graded mountain bike routes. Check out North York Moors National Park website for cycling information.
Horse riding for everyone see Bilsdale Riding Centre
DARK SKIES: we are lucky to be in one of the best places to see stars because of the low light pollution and clear horizons, with breathtaking views of up to 2,000 stars at any one time. The North York Moors is designated an international dark skies reserve.
HISTORY of CHURCH HOUSE FARM formerly known as Canons' Hall, has been traced back to the Middle Ages when the Augustinian Canons of Gisborough Priory were given Canons' Hall by Robert de Brus. The present Church House farmhouse and closes are identified as the site of the medieval Canons' Hall with the same view of the church enjoyed by guests today that the Canons looked out across five hundred years ago.
