To make any walks across the moors you do more interesting, here are some things I found out about the North York Moors area. They amused me at the time. Some of the references refer to our local campsites but there are footpaths near them so these references are still valid.

The Source of the River Leven is just above Kildale (take the road to Baysdale Abbey, Just east of the cattle grid is a small copse of mountain Ash trees, the 2 streams here form the river Leven. Kirklevington name is derived from Kirk = Church, Ton = Town, Leven = River Leven, The Town with the church by the river Leven.
Further along this road, where the Cleveland way meets it at the gate. About 100 yards to the right of the gateway (north) is a large boulder embedded in the moorland with a basin 6" deep ground into it. It is thought that this is an Iron age bowl for grinding corn. GR 619080

Around Gribdale Gate
Captain Cooks Monument Car Park.
1. Take the land rover track to the north up the hill until a narrow path to the right leaves the track to pass under a flat rock. Follow this path east and you get to an ancient field enclosure (about 200BC). In the center of this enclosure is a sunken square where a hut once stood. GR 598113

2. From the car park, head north up the footpath to the gate to the woods. Take the cart track east here then after 50 yards an open stone strip heads north. Along this strip are barrows of people who lived on the moors 1400bc. These barrows are where they buried the ashes of their dead. The most northerly barrow is the largest one. GR 594115

3. Captain Cooks Monument. Captain Cook, Born Marton 1728, killed Hawaii 1779.

4. Head to Lonsdale Plantation and about 1/2 mile south along the road from the north tip of the wood to the east lie several iron age hut circles. These were excavated in 1962 - 1968. There are 5 huts, well covered by plants. These date from 700bc to 700ad.

Roseberry Topping.
1. Technically a mountain it is 1057' high. It used to be higher but the top fell off it in 1912, this is thought to have been caused by the iron stone mining operations here (east of the hill). There was a tramway which linked the mines to the railway. The mines stopped in 1926.

2. Originally called Odinberg. Odin = king on the Norse Gods. Odin is the man on our knecker badge. Its name has also said to have been derived from the celtic Ross meaning Promontory.

3. At one time there was a shrine or hermitage on the hill

4. On the South east side there is a grand shooting box.

Pybus

1. The track passing Pybus campsite was a major track once, farmers drove their cattle along it to join the drove road to Scotland at Yarm.

2. At the summit of Cold Moor (South East of Pybus) there are a couple of abandoned mines.

3. From the point where the track uphill from Pybus meets the Cleveland way, go 100 yards west. To the left of the track is a boulder with a rectangular stump on it, this is the remains of Donna Cross which marked the boundary between 2 estates (Emmerson to the North and Feversham to the South. Emmerson used to play for Middlesbrough but I doubt it was the same one who owned the estate)

From Hasty Bank
The highest point on the moors is 1490' at round hill (East of Hasty Bank). GR 594016

The Wainstones name is thought to have come from the fact that a Danish / Viking leader was slain there, Wanian means to grieve in Saxon. Another link to the Vikings who once lived here

300 yards uphill from the gate on Battersby Incline, to the left is a stone carving of a man wearing a top hat with a bird in front of him

Battersby Incline was used by the miners in Rosedale to send their Iron Ore to Teesside

The tracks that run from Hasty Bank along the contours west to Carlton were made by Jet miners walking from Great Broughton to Carlton to work. A Carl in Viking meant a normal person (I think)

The shale tips on Carlton Bank were from mining Alum. The shale was calcinated to produce Alum which was used for tanning leather and dyeing cloth. There used to be a tannery in Yarm.

On the Moors
There are many crosses on the moors, most were symbols of Christianity erected by the Anglo Saxons, or boundary stones or resting places for funeral corteges

The Bridestones (in Bilsdale) are thought to have been a burial site or druidical temple

Bilsdale valley was once a swamp and not farmed

On the moors, the local little people are Hobgoblins. Hobgoblins are mythical people, much like Brownies, Pixies, Elves, Leprechauns (Ireland), Urisk (Scotland) etc. - Mischievous little people who also do good (elves and the shoemaker). Hob Hole - Hobgoblin Hole, where the Hobgoblins go.
Other creatures locally are: Wyrms in Durham (Lampton Worm), Monkeys in Hartlepool, and Vampires on Whitby.

During the Second World War, the North Yorkshire moors was circled by Airfields. These aircraft kept crashing, unfortunately over 200 airmen died in these accidents, so my thought is there could be a few ghosts wandering around up there....
Here are some that you might find a bit interesting. Details from the website Yorkshire-Aircraft.
11/02/40, near Captain Cooks Monument, a Hudson crashed. This plane was based at Thornaby air base (Which is now the industrial estate)
21/03/40, Bransdale Moor (Near Bloworth Crossing) a Blenheim MKI crashed. This flew from Catterick.
21/10/40, Near Ingleby Greenhow a Whitley MK5 crashed. This plane was from Linton on Ouse. There is a place near Ingleby Greenhow called Whitley and Whitley hill, coincidence?
11/01/41, Near Warren Moor, a Hudson Crashed, this was also flying from Thornaby. Warren moor is the source of the river Leven.
22/01/41, another Hudson crashed, this time near Scarth Nick (the road from Swainby to Sheepwash), again this flew from Thornaby
09/06/41, a Whitley crashed near Bank Foot, Ingleby Greenhow. Bank foot is at the base of Batersby Incline, an old railway line running up the side of the moors.
18/07/41 2 Blenheim MKI crashed, one at East Bransdale Moor and the other at Bilsdale, about 4km away. Both of these were from the same squadron and flew from Church Stanton, Cambridgeshire, where it is flat and no hills.
In 1941, a spitfire crashed near Bransdale mill.
A Lancaster crashed on 14/10/42, at Hagg House Moor on Bilsdale
28/04/43 a Beaufort crashed on Urra Moor
12/02/43, a Wellington crashed on Black Intake Moor, near Chop Gate
18/01/45 an Oxford crashed on the same moor
There is about 92 crashes that I found info about, these were only a selection.
In 13/02/49 a Spitfire crashed near Commondale
An Oxford crashed near Round Hill on the Cleveland Way, and a Whitley crashed at Botton Head, near the Cleveland way, killing all the crew.
A Halifax's crew bailed out of one and it crashed south of Kirby, just of the national park boundary.
In Scugdale a Lancaster crashed, and there is also some wartime concrete emplacements, but no details what they were for.
So why are the aircraft here? Simple, Ghost stories, make them up for wherever you are on the moors, late at night, when a dog howls, and the mist starts to descend

Oh, there were a couple of Spitfires that collided and crashed around Kirklevington - landing at Town End Farm, and Red Hall Farm, (Both pilots OK apart from one landing in a cess pool) and a Mosquito crashed at Low Forest Farm (pilot Died)

UPDATE: I WAS TOLD THAT I HAVEN'T QUITE COPIED ALL THE ABOVE INFO CORRECTLY. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH, THEN GET YOUR FINGERS WORKING ON THE SEARCH ENGINES - OTHER WEB SITES CAN GO INTO THIS IN MORE DETAIL THAN I CAN. SP

Keeping with the theme of dead people on the moors,
Near Ravengill Campsite there is stone marker, at Grid reference 663115 which says the following on its front: