Malton is an old market town on the River Derwent, between the North York Moors and the Wolds. It calls itself Yorkshire's food capital, with a monthly food market, a food festival in May and a cluster of artisan bakers, butchers and cafés around the market place.
Just outside the town, Eden Camp is a museum of 20th-century war in the huts of a former prisoner-of-war camp. Castle Howard, one of the grandest houses in England, is six miles west.