Rosedale Show: a proper Moors day out

If you missed the Rosedale Show last weekend, you are not alone in feeling a bit gutted. The 2026 edition ran on Saturday 15 August at Milburn Arms Field in Rosedale Abbey, deep in the North York Moors National Park, and it was the kind of day that reminds you why agricultural shows still pull crowds. It opened at 9am and packed in livestock, crafts and local produce in one go, which is about as traditional as it gets.

The show is run by the Agricultural, Horticultural and Industrial Society, which has been at this since 1871. That is more than a century and a half of getting farmers and villagers together on the same field, and it is held by kind permission of the owners of The Milburn Arms Field, with extra space borrowed from the Foster and Brown families. The setting itself does half the work: Rosedale Abbey is a small village in the heart of the Moors, roughly eight miles northwest of Pickering and eight miles southeast of Castleton, so it is a proper trek out of York, but that is part of the appeal.

What you actually see there is what makes it worth the drive. The exhibits run the full rural gamut: cattle, goats, hounds, draft horses, ponies, jumping, sheep, produce, flowers, fruit, vegetables, rabbits, guinea pigs, pigeons, poultry, vintage tractors and even a harvest doll. This year added a few more reasons to stick around, with terrier races and shows, a gundog dog show and scurry, railroad hobos, the Bilsdale silver band, gymkhana, fun showjumping, outdoor sculptures, a fun dog show, horses and ponies classes, sheep and cattle classes and children's sports. It is the sort of line-up that keeps families busy from the moment the gates open.

If you are still in the mood for a field day, the good news is that the season is not over. The Farndale Agricultural Show, better known as the Farndale Show, is held annually on the Monday of the August Bank Holiday, which lands on Monday 31 August this year. It is held in Farndale, not far from Rosedale Abbey, and leans into dog displays and demonstrations like sheep shearing and wool spinning. Earlier in the summer, the Ryedale Show took place at Welburn Park in Kirkbymoorside, between Pickering and Helmsley, on the last Tuesday in July, and that one dates back to 1855. And of course, the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate is the big one that everyone knows, run by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society on its 250-acre showground off Railway Road; the 2026 edition drew 150,000 visitors, and the 167th show is already set for 13 to 16 July 2027.

For now, the Rosedale Show is one to mark in the diary for next year. It is a small, fiercely local affair that rewards the effort of getting out to it, and it is exactly the kind of rural day out that is hard to find closer to home. If you have never been, it is a good excuse to head up into the Moors and see a proper Yorkshire show in its element.