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Just driving through the heather moorlands, offering a majestic magenta hue come summer and brimming with mystery and ancient folklore year-round, is where your magical journey to North York Moors will start. Then – seaside, woodland or countryside – you’re in for a treat.

A real landscape lover’s paradise, the North York Moors is of both natural and historical significance. It’s one of England’s most wooded National Parks too. From Roseberry Topping – Cleveland’s most famous hill – and Newton Wood below which floods with bluebells in spring to May Beck and Falling Foss that boasts a fantastic tearoom to quench your thirst (if the waterfall wasn’t enough), this area is rich in both flora and fauna and is ideal to explore by foot, bicycle, car or steam train.

Talking of steam trains, one of the finest ways to explore the Moors from bottom to top is to hop on a heritage locomotive at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway’s Pickering station and venture through 24 miles of valley and forest at a leisurely pace to Whitby. The magic will continue along the way as you’ll get the chance to see Goathland, the film set for Hogsmeade Station in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

While at Whitby or nearby Robin Hood’s Bay, take in a guided tour or ghost walk and you’ll discover all about the local legends that are the foundation of this beautiful part of the UK – from smuggler’s hideouts to trade routes across the moorlands. From Robin Hood’s Bay there’s a walk along the coast to Boggle Hole, the cliff-side cave where legend tells of a pixie with healing powers taking residence. You could also head to Whitby or Scarborough from the Bay along the clifftop via the Cleveland Way National Trail.

The entire area offers breath-taking scenic drives that take in country lanes, sheep-clad farmland, coastal roads and craggy outcrops with the B1257 route from Helmsley to Whitby hailed as a rollercoaster ride that will delight visitors of all ages.

Let Love Cottages find you the perfect North York Moors holiday cottage while you research, explore and become utterly enchanted.