Ryedale.

Leave the A64 York-Scarborough road at Malton, and take the A169 to Pickering. At Pickering rundabout, turn left on the A170 towards Helmsley. After 6.25 miles, turn right up a minor road to Hutton-le-Hole. The village is about 3 miles up this road, with the Folk Museum in the centre of the village.

Hutton-le-Hole Folk Museum

"As you step through the entrance of the Ryedale Folk Museum you will be transported back in time. Take a walk through the site and learn about the history of Ryedale from centuries past

This includes a village shop, saddler, blacksmith, wheelwright, cooper and art gallery."

After leaving the museum, retrace your journey to the A170, and turn right towards Helmsley. Pass through Kirkby Moorside and after 7 miles, you will reach Helmsley town centre. In the market square, go straight on, then right at the T junction and after about 50 yards, left to the carpark.

The entrance to the castle is at the south-east corner of the carpark. Most of the castle’s defences were built during the late 12th and 13th centuries, by the crusader Robert de Roos and his descendants. They include a pair of immensely strong 'barbican' entrances and the high east tower, unusually D-shaped in plan, which still dominates the town.

During the Elizabethan period the Manners family redesigned the castle's chamber block into a mansion house, whose fine plasterwork and panelling still partly survive. The only battle that the castle actually faced came in the civil war. Held for King Charles, it endured a three month siege before being starved out in November 1644 by Parliamentarians under Sir Thomas Fairfax, who was seriously wounded in the fighting. The roundheads dismantled the defences but spared the mansion, subsequently the home of his daughter and her husband, the Duke of Buckingham.

Leave the castle and walk round the north side, After about half a mile, you will come to the walled gardens and vineyard. In it are a café (with toilets) and a small shop. The café occupies the old glass-vinery, and new vines have been planted with their roots outside and leaves spreading across the curved glass roof. In the garden itself is another half acre of vines, donated by the Vine House, as well as an impressive collection of Yorkshire apples, trained in a wide variety of ways. Hopefully, in the near future, wine will be produced from the grapes.

Other attractions in this area:

• Helmsley Town centre (shopping)
• North Yorkshire Moors Railway (Pickering Station)
• Rievaulx Abbey (B1257- turn left from carpark entrance in Helmsley)