A tiptop village! Captain Cook’s birthplace in Yorkshire has wonderful walks, pretty cottages – and lots of history

Exactly 250 years ago, on board his ship, the Resolution, Captain Cook wrote in his diary: ‘About quarter past eleven we crossed the Arctic Circle…and are undoubtedly the first and only ship that ever crossed that line .’

Back in Cook’s hometown of Great Ayton, just ten miles from what was then Middlesbrough Farm, he was already established as the town’s most prized export – a position he still holds.

A low-lying cluster of pretty cottages and limestone terraces, the village also has a butcher shop with Huntsman pies and pies, while the seating at Suggitt’s Café reminds me of nothing but a jukebox playing The Tremeloes and a waitress with a beehive hairstyle let loose.

On one side of the River Leven, Captain Cook’s old schoolhouse, now a small museum, has been restored as it looked when a young cook was a student.

Cook’s childhood home was brought brick by brick to Melbourne in the 1930s, but a bare-chested figure of the great man stands in the village green overlooking Staithes, the seaside town where – according to local legend – Cook first felt the pull has. of the sea.

Accommodation in the area is surprisingly good for such a remote location. The King’s Head Inn is a solid 18th century country inn with 12 cozy rooms in a quaint cottage attached to the main inn.

A 20-minute drive away is Crathorne Hall, a completely different animal: the largest manor house built in England during the reign of Edward VII.

Delightfully exuberant staff and a fine-dining restaurant that prides itself on venison, quail and other locally sourced game dishes ensure that the sprawling proportions feel homely.

“For such a remote place, there is a surprising amount of accommodation in the area,” writes Rob. He recommends Crathorne Hall, pictured, a twenty-minute drive away

A statue of Cook stands in the village green and overlooks Staithes, the coastal town where, according to local legend, Cook first felt the pull of the sea.

Back in Great Ayton I turned my back on Cook’s statue and stared at two landmarks; one natural, one artificial. The latter is a large obelisk on Easby Moor. A challenging two-hour walk over railway crossings and fern-strewn forests is required for a closer look. Unveiled in 1827, the long plaque documents the “unspeakable grief” felt by Cook’s “countrymen” when he was killed in Hawaii, just six years after that momentous crossing of the Arctic Circle.

Another hour of dizzying walking brings me to the top of Roseberry Topping. Known as the ‘Matterhorn of North Yorkshire’, its distinctive semi-collapsed cone-shaped peak is the result of a massive landslide in 1912, caused in part by the mining industry.

From the top there are miles of breathtaking views of the pale blue Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, the rugged coastline around Hartlepool and a forest of wind turbines in the North Sea.

Perhaps Captain Cook did not find this horizon nearly exotic enough for his ambitions. But to me, reaching the Roseberry Topping feels like more than enough effort for a weekend in Yorkshire.