High Bridestones

You'll find yourself standing among a scatter of weathered sandstone slabs on the North Yorkshire moors, about four miles from Whitby, trying to work out what you're actually looking at. High Bridestones is an ancient burial site - Bronze Age, probably - where someone, sometime around 4,000 years ago, decided this windswept ridge was the right place to leave their dead. The stones themselves aren't dramatic. They're rough, unremarkable bits of rock that could easily pass for natural outcrop if you weren't paying attention. But that's rather the point.

This is one for people who actually enjoy archaeology rather than just Instagram-friendly ruins. You won't find visitor facilities, interpretation boards, or even a proper car park - just moorland and the stones themselves, which demands a bit of imagination and patience. Allow an hour if you're genuinely interested; thirty minutes if you're just passing through from Whitby. It's a proper moorland walk to reach it, so decent boots are sensible.

For families with younger children, it might feel a bit underwhelming - there's not much to do once you've arrived, and the setting is exposed and windswept. But for walkers and anyone interested in prehistory, it's absolutely worth the detour while basing yourself at one of the nearby holiday parks. Broadings Farm, Whitby Holiday Park, and Northcliffe & Seaview are all within striking distance, making this a straightforward add-on to a wider exploration of the moors around Whitby.