4- and 5-star hotels in Helmsley

Helmsley is the prettiest market town on the Moors, with a castle, an abbey and the square where the Cleveland Way begins. Friday nights bring a real buzz to the pubs around Market Place, and everything finishes by about eleven. It is not a place for a tight budget or a late night, and the bus service is real but sparse, so a car helps: the best things are three to fifteen miles out, from the Rievaulx and Sutton Bank routes to the White Horse.

The hotels here sit in three kinds of spot. Several carry a Helmsley address, among them Bridge House, 8 Pottergate Mews, Stilworth House on Church Street, Ivy Cottage, Host & Stay Willow Cottage on Bondgate, Borough Beck Cottage on High Street and Rye Court Cottage on Bridge Street. Others sit in the surrounding villages: Shallowdale House at West End Ampleforth, Ristbrow Farm at Hawnby, the three Sproxton Hall cottages, Valley View Farm at Old Byland and The Nab at Pockley near Carlton. The Black Swan is the odd one out, in Market Place in Pickering. Couples and walkers do best in the town, while families and dog owners tend to prefer the farm and cottage addresses.

Getting there and around

The site's own guidance is blunt: skip Helmsley if you have no car, because the bus service is real but sparse and the last bus to York left hours ago. Sutton Bank is fifteen minutes west on the A170, at the top of a one-in-four bank that caravans are banned from, and the National Park visitor centre there has parking, bike hire and a café. Rievaulx is five miles south-west through Oswaldkirk. The Cleveland Way starts at the square: the route to Rievaulx runs about 5.5 km each way from Market Place, through woods and down into the Rye valley by the abbey, allowing around 80 minutes one way.

When to go

Go for the walking, the abbey, a good dinner and a Friday market that still sells vegetables rather than candles. Two nights is the right length, three if you intend to walk the Rievaulx and Sutton Bank routes properly. Book ahead for Friday and Saturday evenings all year, since the town has more beds than covers and walk-ins get turned away regularly. On winter weekdays a couple of places close entirely on Mondays and Tuesdays, and most kitchens take last orders between 8.30pm and 9pm.