Explore the Area
EXPLORE THE JURASSIC COAST: with fantastic beaches for fossil hunting at Runswick Bay, Sandsend, and Robin Hood's Bay. As well as the ever popular Whitby which offers whale watching, harbour boat trips, and the 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.
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 surrounding whether a gentle stroll or a good long hike, there are footpaths from our doorstep going in every direction across the stunning moorland and along the coastline. There are many walks from the nearby Danby Lodge National Park Centre including a circular walk to visit Danby Castle. Danby Beacon is about a mile from the visitor centre with spectacular panoramic views across the moor and sea.
The Danby Lodge National Park Centre has an exhibition area, gallery, cafe, shop, outdoor adventure play area; and offers a wealth of information on the local area: maps, books and guides. North York Moors National Park website has a series of Walking Guides available to download with many walks linked by the Esk Valley Railway enabling you to return to your starting point. Adventures for the Soul offers guided walks, yoga and dark skies everts.
St Hilda's Way is a 43-mile walk which passes by Church House Farm and ends at Whitby Abbey. Celebrating the life of St Hilda, Anglo-Saxon Princess, who hosted the Synod of Whitby as the first Abbess in 664. The Esk Valley Walk is a 37-mile trail following the river Esk from its source high on the North York Moors to the coast. We are well situated to complete stages of the Coast to Coast and the Cleveland Way routes. There circular walk taking in Captain Cooks Monument, and Roseberry Topping, (referred to as Yorkshire's Matterhorn) due to its dramatic shaped summit cut away on one side a legacy to the mining industry over the centuries, with stunning views from the top.
HISTORY: there is a plethora of historic sites and museums to visit: Whitby Abbey, Pickering Castle, Rievaulx Abbey, Helmsley Castle, Scarborough Castle, Mount Grace Priory, Bylands Abbey, Scampston Hall, Nunnington Hall, Beningborough Hall, Castle Howard, 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.
Pretty villages to explore just along the valley you will find Lealholm, Rosedale, Hutton-le-Hole with Ryedale Folk Museum, and Lastingham with St Mary's Church famous for its eleventh-centre crypt.
The world famous North York Moors Railway (as seen on TV) 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: Bilsdale Riding Centre offers horse riding for everyone. The North York Moors is fantastic for cycling with country roads, bridleways, moorand woodland tracks; with cafes and traditional pubs to stop off at as you pass through the villages. Close by is the Yorkshire Cycle Hub with cycle shop and cafe. The Moors to Sea Cycle Network has 150 miles to explore through the North York Moors. Dalby Forest and Guisborough Forest offer graded mountain bike routes. Check out North York Moors National Park website.
DARK SKIES: we are lucky to be in one of the best places to see stars with the nearby Danby Moors Centre designated as a Dark Sky Discovery Site.
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.
