Why you must visit the picturesque Yorkshire village once home to Captain Cook

Continuing Telegraph Travel's Great British Getaway series, we dive into the aptly-named Great Ayton and all its charming oddities.

Is Ayton really that Great?

Aye, it is. Next week marks the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s first expedition to the Pacific and this picturesque village on the fringes of the North Yorkshire Moors is famed for being the maritime explorer’s boyhood home. If you want to get your fill of Cook but can’t afford to shell out for a trip to the Cook Islands, fans – old and new – will not be disappointed with the area’s range of museums, statues and monuments. Adventurers aside, Great Ayton is also known for its award-winning pies, community duck races and sword-dancing clubs. It heels the North York Moors’ iconic hook-nosed hill, Roseberry Topping, so walkers in particular love it, especially in late summer when the surrounding heathered hills turn burgundy and the golden fields are flecked with hay bails.

Tell me moor

Trails from this village are truly beautiful, covering undulating moorland, rolling fields and conifer woodlands (northyorkmoors.org.uk). Head up to Roseberry Topping where – on a clear day – you can enjoy views that reach as far as the Pennines over the foggy funnels of Middlesbrough, and across to Highcliff Nab for panoramas of the coast (including Hartlepool harbour and the old steelworks at Redcar, Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay and ocean wind farms) before you cross Ayton Moor to finish at Captain Cook’s monument standing at 51ft – one foot for each year of the Captain’s life before he was killed in Hawaii in 1779. Even during the height of summer you might not see another soul for miles at a time, with the exception of the odd group, solitary mountain-biker or startled grouse.

It’s not all just walking, is it?

Certainly not. The Esk Valley Railway line, which you can trace from the hilltops, was once used to transport raw materials such as whinstone, ironstone and alum for smelting and building. It can also whisk you from Little Ayton to places such as Castleton Moor, and Grosmont and Whitby, where you can jump aboard a proper steam train and nostalgically ride the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (nymr.co.uk) for a really fun family day out. On your descent to the main village, call in at Fletchers Farm in Little Ayton for tea and cake, or lunch in the café. Children can feed the animals here (be sure to say hello to Winston the pig) and there’s a small pottery where you can paint your own crockery (buttercupspottery.co.uk; £3 studio fee per person; items from £3.50).

The pretty, limestone-terraced high street, partly edged by languid river Leven, is charmingly traditional and still has a number of independent businesses including a book emporium, newsagents, and family-run butcher’s. Little nods to its five minutes of fame as part of a route in the Tour de Yorkshire 2016 and to 23-year-old Great Ayton cyclist Harry Tanfield who won the first stage of this year’s Tour de Yorkshire can be seen in yellow trikes and shop signs in the shape of bicycles dotted about. A trip to Suggitt’s café on the strip is a rite of passage. Queues for its ice cream can sometimes wend down the street – but don’t let it put you off. Its unique flavour (created 96 years ago in 1922) draws people in from far and wide, and the café’s interiors and frontage seem unchanged since the Forties whence it first opened.

So, where did Captain Cook grow up?

While you can’t see Cook’s childhood home now – at least not without trekking to Melbourne where it was taken, rather bizarrely, after being dismantled brick by brick by Sir Russell Grimwade back in 1934 (it’s now billed as the oldest building in Australia) – but walk a few steps up from Suggitt’s and you’ll find the Captain Cook Schoolroom Museum, which the young James attended between the ages of eight and 16 (captaincookschoolroommuseum.co.uk; donations welcome). Although the place is small, it is packed with really well-presented facts, figures and information about his childhood and life as an explorer, along with pieces on the history and culture of Great Ayton and its surrounds.

Where can I hang up my boots?

The King’s Head Inn (telegraph.co.uk/tt-kings-head-inn; doubles from £100) is slightly out of the village (a 30-minute walk), but its position at the bottom of Roseberry Topping is a huge advantage if you want to start or end your walk at the hotel. Rooms are traditional, simple and cosy, with a cottage-like feel, and there’s a good restaurant and bar area for a well-deserved, post-walk beer (or chicken “palmo”, a Teesside delicacy of deep-fried chicken escalope with béchamel sauce, cheddar and various toppings). Handily, they also offer a Walk-Inn package, which includes dinner, bed and breakfast, laminated routes (by walking-books.com), a packed lunch, and post-hike boot-cleaning service (from £85 per person).

Any chance of some scran?

If all that exploring has worked up an appetite, The Royal Oak, a friendly traditional pub on the high street, is the place to go for a delicious Sunday roast served in bucket-sized Yorkshire puddings (royaloakgreatayton.co.uk; from £10.50). Next door, Petch Butcher’s, which has been there since the Twenties, serves incredible pies that make a perfect packed lunch or post-hike snack (large pies from £2.70). They sell 7,000 of the pastry-crusted beauties a week, which is no mean feat for a village of just 5,000 people. For something a little smarter, Joplin’s further down the high street is an seafood restaurant with dark, candlelit interiors and an impressive wine list (joplinsrestaurant.co.uk; mains from £23).