Grosmont (pronounced 'Grow-mont') sits where the Coast to Coast drops out of Eskdale to end the day's walk. A scattered hamlet until the 1830s, it was transformed when George Stephenson drove his Whitby & Pickering Railway through here — planned in 1831, its original tunnel cut in 1834-35 and the line opened in 1836, worked at first by horses. Ironstone unearthed during construction sparked a mining boom; the Bagnall brothers' Grosmont Ironworks roared with blast furnaces from 1863 until around 1891, and the quiet car park was once a smoking industrial complex. Today Grosmont is the northern terminus of the preserved North Yorkshire Moors Railway, an 18-mile (29 km) heritage steam line up to Pickering whose trains also run on to Whitby. It is the UK's most popular heritage railway, and walkers can wander through Stephenson's Grade II*-listed original 'Horse Tunnel' to the locomotive sheds, where engines are restored and stabled. With a tea room, a station pub, a village co-operative shop founded in 1867 (Britain's oldest independent co-op), and one of the finest steam-railway scenes in England, it makes a memorable last stop before the final push to the sea.
Highlights
- A working steam railway through the village, with the engine sheds open to wander
- The Esk Valley line linking Whitby and Middlesbrough — rare rail access mid-walk
- The memory of Grosmont Priory, one of only three Grandmontine houses in England
- The village shop — the last proper resupply before Robin Hood's Bay for many walkers
At a glance
| Period | Victorian (1836) |
|---|---|
| Stage | 15 — Blakey Ridge to Grosmont |
Take care
- Cross the railway only at the marked crossings and footbridge — keep off the tracks
- The lane up to St Matthew's church is steep
History
Grosmont takes its name from Grosmont Priory, a small Grandmontine religious house founded around 1200 and dissolved during the suppression of the monasteries in the 1530s; for centuries afterwards this was little more than a few cottages in the Esk valley. Everything changed with the railway. George Stephenson surveyed a route to link the port of Whitby with Pickering in 1831; the line, including the 120-yard (110 m) tunnel at Grosmont built 1834-35, opened in 1836 as the Whitby & Pickering Railway, with carriages initially hauled by horses and rope-worked up the self-acting Beck Hole incline. Ironstone exposed during the tunnelling triggered an industrial transformation: mining began in 1836, and in the 1860s Charles and Thomas Bagnall built the Grosmont Ironworks, with two blast furnaces by 1863 and a third from 1876, eventually producing tens of thousands of tons of iron and employing around 500 men until the works closed about 1891. When steam replaced horses in the 1840s a larger second tunnel was driven alongside Stephenson's original. The main line through Grosmont closed to passengers in 1965; volunteers reopened the Pickering-Grosmont section as the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on 1 May 1973. Tagged era: Victorian / Industrial.
Myth & legend
When the railway settlement sprang up in the 1830s it was known simply as 'Tunnel'; the village later took the name of Grosmont Priory, the vanished medieval house of the rare Grandmontine order founded here around 1200 — one of only three in England, remembered now at Priory Farm across the Esk.
Geology
Grosmont lies in the deep, wooded trench of Eskdale, cut through the Middle Jurassic sandstones, shales and ironstones of the North York Moors. It was these rocks that made the village's fortune: seams of ironstone exposed when Stephenson's navvies cut the tunnel in the 1830s proved rich enough to mine commercially, the ore feeding ironworks on the Durham coalfield and later Grosmont's own furnaces. The surrounding moors are capped by hard sandstone over softer shales, which is why the rivers — the Esk and its tributaries — have carved such steep, sheltered dales below the open tops the walker has just crossed.
Wildlife & nature
After the bare, heather-clad moor tops, Grosmont sits in a green, sheltered valley world. The River Esk here is Yorkshire's premier salmon and sea trout river, the fish running up from the coast to spawn, and it is the only river in Yorkshire still home to the endangered freshwater pearl mussel, which depends on those migrating salmon to complete its life cycle. The wooded banks of Eskdale shelter dippers and grey wagtails on the water, kingfishers along the quieter reaches, and otters work the river at dusk; woodpeckers and tawny owls call from the oak and ash, and roe deer haunt the dells. The reverting industrial ground — old spoil and the ironworks site — has softened into grassland and scrub rich in wildflowers and butterflies in summer.
The view
The classic Grosmont scene is steam: locomotives simmering at the platform, the turntable, the water tower, and trains drifting up the valley in clouds of smoke against wooded hillsides. The level crossing in the heart of the village, where the road threads between the running lines beside the signal box and full crossing gates, is a much-photographed railway spot. Walk through the dark, dripping Horse Tunnel and you emerge among the engine sheds — a working scene little changed in feel for over a century.
Photography
Steam is the subject: the level crossing and platforms give classic locomotive shots, and the walk through to the engine sheds viewing area gets you close to locos being coaled and watered. Bridge over the Murk Esk frames the village.
When to visit
The heritage railway runs a spring-to-autumn season with special events beyond it; the village is quietest in deep winter. The Esk valley woods colour beautifully in October.
Getting there
Grosmont is one of the best-connected spots on the walk: Esk Valley line trains link it to Whitby and Middlesbrough, and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway steams south towards Pickering.
Where to stay
A handful of B&Bs and guesthouses in the village, with wider choice in Goathland, Egton Bridge and Whitby; walkers often push on to Littlebeck or Grosmont's neighbouring hamlets.
Food & water
The village shop and tearooms can refill bottles; the climb out towards Littlebeck and Sleights Moor has nothing, so top up before leaving.
Safety
A working steam railway runs through the village — cross only at the marked crossings and footbridge, and keep off the tracks and platform edges. The lane up to the church is steep. In an emergency dial 999 or 112; for non-urgent medical advice call NHS 111.
Accessibility
The village core, station and crossing are level; the lane up to St Matthew's church and the moor road out are steep. Station facilities follow heritage-railway norms.
Visitor tips
Give yourself an hour for the engine sheds even if you are not a railway person — it is one of the best spectacles on the walk. The Co-op style village shop is the last proper resupply before Robin Hood's Bay for many itineraries.
Listen: the audio guide
The full narration of this stop's audio guide, in text.
You walk into Grosmont and, if the day is right, you smell it before you see it: coal smoke, hot oil, steam. Somewhere close a whistle blows, a great green locomotive breathes at the platform, and the ground itself seems to tremble a little. After days of empty moorland, you have arrived in a village that runs on iron and fire — one of the busiest steam railway hubs in the world. Grosmont grew up around two things: ironstone and the railway. In 1836 the great engineer George Stephenson pushed his Whitby and Pickering line through this valley, and it was building that railway that first cut into the hills here and revealed the rich ironstone beneath. For a time this was a mining village, its furnaces glowing, its little terraces filling with workers. The mines are long gone, but the railway remains — reborn as the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, a heritage steam line lovingly restored by enthusiasts and now one of the most popular of its kind anywhere. Grosmont is its northern hub: the place of the engine sheds, where the great machines are stabled, coaled, watered, and repaired. When you stand on this platform you are standing on one of the oldest pieces of passenger railway on earth, at a spot where the age of steam never quite ended. So here is what to look for. First, the locomotives themselves — gleaming, hissing, enormous, each with its name and number and its crew leaning from the cab. Watch one get under way, the great driving wheels biting, the first deep exhaust beats quickening into a rhythm. Second, seek out the engine sheds, the working heart of the line, where you can often watch fitters at their trade among the smoke and steam. Third, find the old pedestrian tunnel — the original horse-worked tunnel from Stephenson's 1836 line, when carriages were drawn not by engines but by horses. Walk through it and you pass, quite literally, through the dawn of the railways. Fourth, look at the station itself, dressed in its period colours, its signs and lamps and enamel advertisements a careful portrait of a vanished age. And fifth, watch the people — the volunteers in waistcoats and caps who keep all this alive for love, not wages. Do take care near the platform edge and the crossings; these are real, heavy, working trains, so heed the signs and the staff and keep well back from the line. Now, a story from the smoke. When George Stephenson drove his line through here in 1836, there were no steam engines on it at all along this stretch — the carriages were pulled by horses, plodding through that very tunnel you can still walk today. It was slow, patient, and utterly of its time. Yet within a few short years steam had swept the horses away and was remaking the whole of Britain: shrinking distances, moving coal and iron and people at speeds no one had dreamed of. To stand in Grosmont is to stand at the hinge of that revolution — the place where an old world of horse and cart gave way, in a single generation, to the roar of the engine. From Grosmont the Coast to Coast climbs steeply out of the valley and back onto the high ground, then dips down into the wooded glen of Littlebeck and the hidden waterfall of Falling Foss, with its strange little hermitage carved from a single boulder. You are close now; the sea is not far. But linger a moment first, and let one more train pull out — the whistle, the smoke, the slow gathering thunder of it — before you turn east toward the coast. Walk safe.
Common questions
How old is Grosmont & the North Yorkshire Moors Railway?
Grosmont & the North Yorkshire Moors Railway dates from the Victorian (1836) period.
How do I get to Grosmont & the North Yorkshire Moors Railway?
Grosmont is one of the best-connected spots on the walk: Esk Valley line trains link it to Whitby and Middlesbrough, and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway steams south towards Pickering.
Is Grosmont & the North Yorkshire Moors Railway accessible?
The village core, station and crossing are level; the lane up to St Matthew's church and the moor road out are steep. Station facilities follow heritage-railway norms.
When is the best time to visit Grosmont & the North Yorkshire Moors Railway?
The heritage railway runs a spring-to-autumn season with special events beyond it; the village is quietest in deep winter. The Esk valley woods colour beautifully in October.
Is there food and water at Grosmont & the North Yorkshire Moors Railway?
The village shop and tearooms can refill bottles; the climb out towards Littlebeck and Sleights Moor has nothing, so top up before leaving.
Where can I stay near Grosmont & the North Yorkshire Moors Railway?
A handful of B&Bs and guesthouses in the village, with wider choice in Goathland, Egton Bridge and Whitby; walkers often push on to Littlebeck or Grosmont's neighbouring hamlets.
What should I know before visiting Grosmont & the North Yorkshire Moors Railway?
Give yourself an hour for the engine sheds even if you are not a railway person — it is one of the best spectacles on the walk. The Co-op style village shop is the last proper resupply before Robin Hood's Bay for many itineraries.
Is Grosmont & the North Yorkshire Moors Railway safe to visit?
A working steam railway runs through the village — cross only at the marked crossings and footbridge, and keep off the tracks and platform edges. The lane up to the church is steep. In an emergency dial 999 or 112; for non-urgent medical advice call NHS 111.
Nearby on the route
Plan the visit
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