A warm welcome to The Cornmill.

Your hosts are Karen and Chris Tinkler and we will be delighted to welcome you to our home. We have been here since 2002 and continue to look for ways to improve your stay with us, as some of you who have been here before will recognise from the pictures!

We offer Four Star Silver Award-winning Guest House and Four Star self-catering cottage accommodation on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, half way between Helmsley and Pickering and convenient for Castle Howard, Rievaulx Abbey, York and the North Yorkshire Coast.

There are records in the Domesday book of a watermill in Kirby Mills. The present Cornmill was built around 1750 and was a working watermill until the mid-1950’s. The mill race can still be seen via a glass viewing panel running beneath the dining room. The guest rooms are in the farm house (added around 1850) and the cottages are in what was the old stable block. All three buildings – plus reception - encircle the courtyard, which provides a haven of tranquillity (with seating, so you can relax). Please feel free to relax in the garden – in which we grow our own vegetables that we use in season – or wander through the paddocks (keeping company with our hens and the stray ducks) or try your luck at fishing on our stretch of the River Dove, which has brown trout, grayling and rainbow trout escapees from the trout farm.

There’s a wealth of birdlife in the paddocks, including out own hens, wild ducks, moorhens, stray grouse and pheasant, wood pigeons, etc., plus – if you keep your eyes peeled, a kingfisher.

We offer wireless broadband access for our guests and goose and duck down pillows and duvets are offered as standard, although we can provide non-allergy bedding or blankets if you prefer.

North Yorkshire Hotels, iknow-yorkshire.co.uk

As you would expect, the Penny Bank Cafe in Kirkbymoorside is getting prepared for Valentines Day with a special menu on the 13th and 14th of February.
 
There are lots of things happening at Castle Howard, with a number of on site courses in March and a craft and produce market planned for Easter. Don't forget that Yorkshire Lavender is close to Castle Howard (at Terrington) and offers free admission too!

Ryedale Folk Museum is also gearing up to Valentines Day, offering you the opportunity to create gifts for a loved one based on the museum collection. On Shrove Tuesday (16th of February) you can sample pancakes made over an open fire in the traditional cottages.

Although it is a long way off, don't forget to book a room soon if you are planning to attend the Pickering War Weekend next October.

I'll add other events as they draw closer.
 

As part of the general maintenance of what are quite old, agricultural “working” buildings, we’ve recently replaced all of the roofs, plus installed new double glazed sash windows at the front of the guest house, which helps to make the house more energy efficient. To support this, we adjust the timers on the boilers to suit the weather conditions and generally set the central heating temperature at around 19-21 degrees which is in line with recommendations from various environmental groups.

We also use low energy lightbulbs and try to source the wood for the stove from either trees cut down in the paddocks / along the river or from wood that is brought to us by the river during the various “high water” periods. Guests can help by closing windows, turning down thermostats (although we understand that some guests do feel the cold more than others and may need to turn the heat up), turning lights off when not in use and reusing towels where possible .

Unless there’s been a “production outage”, eggs are supplied by the Cornmill Flock. We also try to use vegetables from our own plot in season.