Hole of Horcum
Local highlightA vast natural amphitheatre gouged into the North York Moors, which legend says a giant scooped out to throw at his wife
Open accesson open access land, where the right to roam applies
From the road on the moor top the ground suddenly drops away into a vast green bowl — the Hole of Horcum, a natural hollow the best part of a mile across and hundreds of feet deep, scooped out of the heather moor of the North York Moors. Water from springs wore the soft rock away over thousands of years to open the bowl out, though the old story is that a giant called Wade scooped up a handful of earth to hurl at his wife, leaving the hollow behind. A well-walked path drops in from the Saltergate car park on the A169 and loops round the rim and floor, a few miles all told. The little hill of Blakey Topping to the east is said in the same tale to be the clod he threw.
