Before heading home, we made a couple more random, but interesting, stops at Goathland Station (of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway) and the Hellfire Caves (in West Wycombe).
The Hellfire Caves are a series of hand dug tunnels and caverns excavated by Sir Francis Dashwood in the 1740’s and 50’s. Originally, the endeavor was to give employment to local villagers, after a succession of harvest failures, by using the chalk from the caves to build a main road through the area. Soon, however, the flamboyant Sir Francis Dashwood began using the caves for the meetings and parties of the men’s club he called the Knights of Saint Francis of Wycombe. This notorious club of purported pagans/satan worshippers later came to be known as the Hellfire Club. The caves extend over a quarter mile underground beneath a small hill. Three hundred feet above, on top of the hill, is St. Lawrence’s Church and the Dashwood family’s mausoleum.
Goathland Station is part of a heritage railway network still running for tourists and rail aficionados in the North York Moors National Park. Originally opened in 1865, it has remained mostly unchanged since that time – the last recorded change was in 1908. It’s been used in many film and tv productions, most notably appearing as Hogwarts Station at Hogsmeade in the Harry Potter films.
More interesting places…altho I feel like I have a lisp after saying Goathland a few times.
I’m still not sure how to correctly pronounce the name. Strange, I didn’t see any goats around the area, though. 🤔
Wow. Another interesting, beautiful place. ❤️❤️🌈👏
🚂😀
Nice. Goathland Station has a lot of character, just as did the travel by train way back when hopefully still so. Did you ride the train at all?
We actually missed the train that came through. Had to keep to our own tight schedule, sadly.