Yorkshire Travel Guide

Where To Go in Yorkshire?

This is the scene of Goathland village green and shops, that introduces most episodes of Heartbeat on TV as the fictional village of Aidensfield. There are no sheep but perhaps they have been crowded out by the tourists.

Goathland (Heartbeat Country)

Goathland is a village situated in the North Yorkshire Moors due north of Pickering, off the A169 road to Whitby. It is surrounded by beautiful scenery and has the advantage of having a station on the North Yorkshire Moors steam railway line.

This being said it would not normally be singled out as a pretty village and would definitely not justify the large throngs of tourists that visit the village throughout the summer months. That is if it were not famous as Aidensfield, the 1960’s setting for the popular ITV police series Heartbeat. I must admit to being a fan of the series myself, as it entertains without gratuitous violence and episodes usually have a happy ending.

The Goathland Hotel which becomes the Aidensfield Arms
The Goathland Hotel which becomes the Aidensfield Arms in the Heartbeat series. Until recently they used the hotel for exterior and interior scenes, but this eventually became too disruptive for their normal business.

Fans will not be disappointed by a visit to fictional Aidensfield as many of the series landmarks are recognisable, including the stores, Garage / funeral directors, the public house and of course the railway station. Some other regular settings in the series are located outside of the village. The police house can be found about 70 miles away in the small village of Askwith near Ilkley and the police station can be found in the town of Otley, this was a real police station in past years. Now most interior shots for all the buildings are filmed in reconstructed studio’s.

The Steam Railway is a private trust that carries upwards of 200,000 passengers a year and links Grosmount with Pickering. It follows the route of the 19th century line that originally connected to Whitby.

Goathland village sits 500 feet above sea level and has a history extending back to Viking times. The tame black faced sheep have a common right to graze on the village green and surrounding moorland that extends back for hundreds of years.