From the silver screen to much-loved TV dramas, the North York Moors plays a starring role. If it’s not the stunning coastline or panoramic moorland, then it’s the charming villages, heritage steam trains, ancient castles and abbeys that have film and TV companies knocking on our door.
In partnership with VisitYork and VisitBritain, we're rolling out the red carpet, and you’re top of the guest list. This is your invitation to discover the scenes behind the movies and experience the National Park through the lens of your favourite characters.
North York Moors blockbusters
Find out how our small villages in the National Park took Hollywood by storm...
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
With stunning views and stylish carriages, the heritage railway is hard to beat for a scenic backdrop.
In years gone by, it played a starring role in TV favourites such as ITV’s Heartbeat and Downton Abbey, and films including Dad’s Army.
More recently, Tom Cruise was seen atop one of their train for the seventh instalment of the Mission: Impossible movie franchise. Take a look at the scene below... (please don't do this when you visit the railway!)
The 9F No. 92134 train also got a run out in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in 2023, being used for various scenes from Pickering to Grosmont, while the Grosmont Motive Power Depot (MPD) was used as the set for a night shoot, dressed as a German base.
Pickering station also starred in the opening scenes of the film adaptation of Downton Abbey: The Movie (you can also catch views of the train steaming through Newton Dale), along with Castle Howard, Hovingham Hall and Ampleforth College.
The railway also featured in Testament of Youth, the BBC Films/Heyday Films adaptation of Vera Brittain’s World War One memoirs, which was shot in several locations including Goathland, Egton Moor, Fylingdales and along the coast.
Not forgetting the wizarding world’s most famous train station, Hogsmeade in the Harry Potter films, is in fact the North York Moors' very own Goathland station!
Want to follow in the footsteps of the stars?
You can visit North Yorkshire Moors Railway, hopping on and off at all locations on their trains from Pickering to Whitby using a day rover.
We recommend the following walks in these big screen locations...
Upon arriving in Goathland to see Hogsmeade, follow our Mallyan Spout and Beck Hole circular route, a 3-mile circular through a wooded valley and along the heritage line.
Mission: Impossible? Don't sit on the train (or run on top of it like Tom Cruise!), instead walk our 8-mile route from Grosmont to Whitby if you're in the mood for a challenge, before getting the train back.
Castle Howard
Well-known as the location for both the hugely popular 1980s ITV series and film versions of Brideshead Revisited, majestic Castle Howard also turns up in the BBC’s Death Comes to Pemberley and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. In the second series of the hugely popular ITV drama Victoria, the house doubled as Kensington Palace.
Most recently, it appeared in one of Netflix's biggest series, Bridgerton.
You can walk around the entire Castle Howard estate, viewing some of its most marvellous monuments on this 5-mile Parkland and Monuments circular walk.
Helmsley
Colin Firth and Julie Walters led a 2020 film adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic children's novel The Secret Garden. Much of the filming took place in the North York Moors, including Helmsley Walled Garden (the secret garden), Helmsley Castle, Duncombe Park, North Yorkshire Moors Railway, plus moorland shots in Farndale, Goathland (Wheeldale Roman Road) and Rievaulx Moor.
Duncombe Park also masquerades as the German HQ in the 2016 'Dad's Army' film, alongside cameos in the 2012 BBC drama Parade’s End; and the 2013 BBC film 'The Thirteenth Tale.
There's plenty to do in the National Park's only market town of Helmsley, including a visit to Helmsley Arts Centre or Helmsley Castle.
Walk the 3.5 mile Helmsley Circular Route, or let your journey from Helmsley take you to Rievaulx Abbey just 3.4 miles away...
Rievaulx Abbey
The stunning ruins of Rievaulx Abbey form the impressive backdrop for King Arthur and his metallic knights for the 2017 Transformers movie, Transformers: The Last Knight.
Do the 2.5 mile Rievaulx Loop and see what the Cybertronians saw!
Sutton Bank
One of Channel 5’s popular animal doctors in The Yorkshire Vet, Peter Wright, hails from Grace Lane Veterinary Surgery in Kirkbymoorside, and the show often features Sutton Bank on visits out across the North York Moors.
Levisham Estate
The North York Moors took centre stage in a classic children adventure film, The Runaways, starring Yorkshire legend Mark Addy. When misguided father of three, Reith (Mark Addy) passes away, his children, Angie (Molly Windsor), Polly (Macy Shackleton) and Ben (Rhys Connah), are left to cope alone; Angie acting as surrogate mother. Their Uncle Blythe (Lee Boardman) suddenly returns from prison, harbouring a grudge over a long-standing family debt. With no option, the three siblings and their two donkeys leave their home in Whitby and embark on a journey across the North York Moors, in a search of their estranged mother (Tara Fitzgerald).
It's an uplifting film about childhood love and loss, taking in a scenic journey from Osmotherley, towards Robin Hood’s Bay, through Sutton Bank and our Levisham Estate, including Skelton Tower. The North Yorkshire Moors Railway stations at Goathland and Grosmont also feature as the children climb aboard the train, with donkeys in tow! Through the many lessons learnt along the way, Angie, and her siblings discover for better or worse, what it truly means to be a family.
Robin Hood's Bay and Staithes
The National Park’s dramatic coast played a starring role in Daniel Day-Lewis’ final film Phantom Thread about 1950s dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock. To capture the atmospheric beauty of the film, locations such as the stunning fishing village of Robin Hood’s Bay, the cobbled streets of Staithes, St Oswald's Church in Lythe and the classic interior of Hotel Victoria formed the backdrop. It's possible to walk in Day-Lewis’ footsteps along the clifftops above Robin Hood’s Bay, by venturing north on a short stretch of the Cleveland Way National Trail towards Whitby.
Sit down with your pre-schooler and see Staithes in CBeebies’ Old Jack’s Boat, which featured the late Bernard Cribbins as 'Old Jack', a retired fisherman who tells stories from inside his fishing boat, The Rainbow.