"Only pigs and horses!" Malton by Sjalen

Malton is a little town between York and the North York Moors national park and Scarborough on the coast. Quite a quiet place, it is livened up by the many racehorse stables in the area whilst the countryside is otherwise full of pig farms - you can easily spot them by the little round metal shelters for each pig in the fields. When I worked for the Ministry of Agriculture in York, I had to get to grips with an enormous amount of pig statistics from this town :)))

The most famous sight around here is otherwise the fantastic Castle Howard. Named after the Howard family which has also given names to the hills that rise to the north of it, starting off the moors along the Vale of York. Don't mind me in the picture. I'm only nibbling on digestive biscuits so that we could say "Must digest first!" just like Cornelia did in "Brideshead Revisited" which was filmed here.

If you want to be as close to historic York as to the moors and don't mind a bit of driving around, Malton and its twin town Norton just across the little river is a good base.

• Pros:animals, strategically located
• Cons:small town
• In a nutshell:Relaxing Yorkshire