North York Moors

The North York Moors form a high expanse of heather and valleys above the Yorkshire coast and the Vale of Pickering. Medieval monasteries held lands here, grazing sheep and marking routes across the moor with stone crosses. Rievaulx Abbey, founded in 1132 in the Rye valley, grew rich on its estates before its dissolution in 1538. Ironworking begun by the monks continued nearby, with a blast furnace built in the 1560s.