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 our 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

After the coldest winter in a lot of years here in North Yorkshire, it was lovely to see our resident kingfisher - Rex to his mates .... - back swooping along the mill race and perching on the cherry tree. We've also spotted some returning ducks, moorhens, and a lovely pheasant with dark plumage.

The Penny Bank Cafe in Kirkbymoorside has a Tapas Weekend on the 6th and 7th of August, followed by Middle Eastern Weekend on the 17th and 18th of September. Judging by past events, these should be worth a visit.

There are lots of things happening at Castle Howard in August, including a Craft and Product market on the 10th, the annual Proms night on the 21st and a Wild West Children's Weekend from the 28th to the 30th. Don't forget that Yorkshire Lavender is close to Castle Howard (at Terrington) and offers free admission too!

Ryedale Folk Museum has the annual Cottage Cooking week on from the 22nd to the 28th of August. There are a number of other August activities as well. 

If you are a fan of contemporary music (for example, the type of thing that gets played on Radcliffe and Maconie) and are interested in live music in a small, intimate venue with wonderful acoustics, you should check out The Band Room at Farndale, which is about 9 miles from us in the middle of the North Yorks. Moors. After a packed and stomping Megafaun gig (supported superbly by Caitlin Rose), on the 29th of August, there are preparing for Citay on the 10th of September (it'll be interesting to see how all seven (!!!) of them get on the stage!). Can you guess the Bob Dylan song(s) (Band Room tradition) they'll perform. Also, spare them a little sympathy as Nigel tells me that they have to drive down to Dorset for a gig the following day (sack whoever put together that agenda!!!)

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 .

Unfortunately, the Cornmill Flock has been severely reduced in number, caused by a fox (!£$%&*!) killing most of the hens. We've also been made aware that as we have more than 3 letting rooms, by law (!!) we are not allowed to serve guests with our own flock's eggs (see the Defra website for more details...), so reluctantly, we'll have to withdraw this option (and eat the eggs ourselves.....). We are still planning to build the flock back up over time, but will probably do this slower than originally intended (i.e., as we can't use the eggs for guest breakfasts).

We try to use vegetables from our own plot in season and also do get a number of seasonal items for neighbours who have local allotments.