Goathland

Goathland is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. It is in the North York Moors national park due north of Pickering, off the A169 to Whitby. It has a station on the steam-operated North Yorkshire Moors Railway line.

According to the 2001 UK census, Goathland parish had a population of 407.

Goathland village is 500 feet above sea level and has a history extending from Viking times. In 1109 King Henry I granted land to Osmund the priest and brethren of the hermitage of Goathland, then called Godelandia for the soul of his mother Queen Matilda, who had died in 1083. This is recorded in a charter held at Whitby Abbey. The village was a spa town in the 19th century. There are many hotels and guest houses in the village, the largest, the Mallyan Spout Hotel, is named after a nearby waterfall. There is a caravan site, reached by driving along the track which is the site of the older railway route, 1835 to 1860.

Much of the surrounding land is owned by the Duchy of Lancaster. The Duchy's tenants have a common right extending for hundreds of years to graze their black faced sheep on the village green and surrounding moorland.