East Ayton

Main Street Food and Essentials

Walkers, at 17 Main Street, is a family-run fish restaurant founded in October 1993. It fries fish in beef dripping, offers gluten-free batter on request and welcomes dogs in its front section. Its published menu includes smoked haddock chowder and a haddock fish butty; the separate Pudding Bar lists pavlovas, Eton mess, trifles, cheesecakes and hot sponges.

Ayton Pharmacy is at 35 Main Street, adding a practical stop to the village centre.

From Lodge Gardens to Riverside History

The restaurant and bar at East Ayton Lodge welcome non-residents, and the conservatory overlooks south-facing gardens. The lodge's lounge is dog friendly. Set within three acres of gardens, the house became Lady Marjorie Nunburnholme's home in 1928. After her son, Pilot Officer David Wilson, died while flying over France in 1941, she donated the house to Scarborough Hospital; it became a children's hospital before its later restoration as a hotel.

The village stands on the east bank of the River Derwent, opposite West Ayton, at the foot of the gentle southern slopes of the Tabular Hills. John Carr designed the bridge that joins the two Aytons; it was built in 1775. The historic core mixes limestone and sandstone walls under red clay pantiles or grey slate, with narrow ginnels, boundary walls and patches of cobble around Castlegate and Main Street. On Carr Lane there is a square animal pound of limestone rubble, one corner rounded, walls about a metre and a half high, its top course rebuilt around 1980. Old Weaver's Cottage at 4 Main Street is a reminder that this was once a wool-working place; in the 13th and 14th centuries the district's fleeces went to Hull, and the fulling mill's remains still stand by the river near Ayton Castle.

Norman Ravens and Sanctuary

The church of St John the Baptist rewards a slow look. Its Norman doorway carries beakhead carving, and the parish counts nine raven heads in it, reputedly all different. The tub font was cut from a single stone around 1130 and still holds the iron from a former locked lid, and there is a hole beside the main door for a timber bar, from the days when the church served as sanctuary. The single bell is dated 1795.

Forge Valley's Woods and Riverside Route

Forge Valley was gouged out by glacial meltwater and is now a National Nature Reserve. The two-mile riverside route starts at Old Man's Mouth car park, a mile and a half north of East Ayton, and has a fairly level boardwalk with seats and passing places. The section towards Ayton Castle is closed to pedestrians because the boards are unsafe; follow the signed alternative through the woods via the permissive path, Footpath 702 and Cockrah Road. Wild garlic and wood anemones flower in spring, and the woods turn colour in autumn. Keep dogs under control to protect river wildlife.

Arriving in East Ayton

The 28 bus serves East Ayton's Main Street on the Scarborough–Helmsley route via Pickering. Seamer is the nearest railway station, about 2.7 miles from Main Street.