Goathland
Goathland on the North Yorkshire Moors is a village of considerable charm and historical character that has achieved a level of fame in contemporary popular culture quite disproportionate to its modest size through its use as the filming location for the television series Heartbeat, which ran for eighteen series between 1992 and 2010 and used the village as the fictional Aidensfield. The filming association has made Goathland one of the most visited villages in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, and the combination of the Heartbeat heritage, the genuine moorland village character and the Goathland station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway creates a destination of considerable visitor appeal.
The village green, the pub and the surrounding moorland landscape retain their character as a genuinely traditional North Yorkshire Moors moorland village, the grazing sheep and the open moorland around the village perimeter providing the authentic backdrop that made it attractive to the Heartbeat production team. The station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway heritage line, styled as Hogsmeade Station for the Harry Potter films, provides an additional cultural reference point that brings a younger demographic to complement the Heartbeat visitor base.
The Mallyan Spout waterfall accessible by a short walk from the village provides an excellent natural feature complementing the village visit, the waterfall cascading approximately 20 metres into the West Beck gorge in a setting of considerable woodland beauty particularly attractive in the autumn when the surrounding deciduous trees are at their most colourful.