Thirsk

At 23 Kirkgate, three minutes from Market Place, in the house where Alf Wight lived and worked. The 1940s rooms are restored to how the books describe them, with a veterinary science gallery and a recreated television set upstairs. Around £13 adult, open daily most of the year, and comfortably a two-hour visit.

Stalls fill the Market Place from about 8am to 3pm both days — fruit and veg, cheese, plants, tools, fabric and a fish van. It is a working market, not a craft fair. Get a bacon sandwich from one of the square cafés and watch the town do its shopping properly.

Six miles east on the A170, up a one-in-four hill closed to caravans. The National Park visitor centre has a café, bike hire and free short walks to the White Horse and Roulston Scar. The Yorkshire Gliding Club flies from the top; trial flights can be booked and cost upwards of £100 for a short launch.

St Mary's, at the foot of Kirkgate, is a soaring fifteenth-century church free to enter in daylight hours. A hundred metres away at 14-16 Kirkgate, Thirsk Museum occupies the birthplace of Thomas Lord, founder of Lord's cricket ground, with local history and a cricket room. Entry is a few pounds, afternoons in season.

Ten minutes' walk from the square on Station Road. Around fifteen flat meetings between April and September, with Course Enclosure entry from roughly £12 and grandstand tickets nearer £25. Small, friendly and unpretentious — you can stand at the rail. Buses and taxis get stretched afterwards, so walk back into town.

Eight miles east under the escarpment, Byland Abbey is a huge, largely empty Cistercian ruin with the remains of a great rose window — English Heritage, quiet, and far less visited than Rievaulx. Kilburn, next door, is home to Robert Thompson's Craftsmen, where the mouse-signed oak furniture has been made since 1895; the showroom and visitor centre are free.

Thirsk station is a mile and a quarter west of the square on Station Road, on the East Coast Main Line: LNER and TransPennine services give roughly two hours twenty to London King's Cross, 20 minutes to York, 10 to Northallerton and about 40 to Middlesbrough. The walk into town takes 22 minutes along a pavement the whole way, or a taxi from the rank costs around £6. Buses run to Northallerton and Ripon on the 70, and the 128 crosses Sutton Bank to Helmsley, Pickering and Scarborough. Driving, the town sits just off the A19 and 20 minutes from the A1(M) at Dishforth. Market Place parking is free for a limited stay; the long-stay car parks off Finkle Street cost a couple of pounds.

Better than most Moors towns, because the mainline station puts York 20 minutes away and Northallerton 10. The town itself is fully walkable. But Sutton Bank, Byland and the moor villages need either a car or the limited 128 bus, which does not run frequently or late. For pure sightseeing without wheels, York or Malton is easier.

Six miles east on the A170, about fifteen minutes by car, ending with a steep one-in-four climb that caravans and large motorhomes are banned from. Park at the National Park visitor centre at the top for a few pounds. From there it is a level 20-minute clifftop walk south to the head of the Kilburn White Horse.

The World of James Herriot at 23 Kirkgate is the main site — his actual house and surgery, restored to the 1940s, roughly £13 and two hours. Beyond that, the market square, St Mary's Church and the surrounding Vale of Mowbray farmland are the Darrowby of the books. The television series was largely filmed elsewhere, in Grassington and the Dales.

Sharply. On the fifteen or so flat fixtures between April and September, expect £25 to £40 a night more and much reduced availability, especially on Saturdays and the Summer Cup meeting. Check the racecourse fixture list before booking. If you want the racing, book two or three months out; if you want quiet, pick a non-race weekday.