Ryedale Folk Museum

Most of what you see is not behind glass. You step into the buildings, and the rooms are dressed as lived-in and working spaces. The medieval Manor House, brought from Harome, has colossal cruck timbers carrying its roof, and at the far end of the timeline sits a reconstructed Iron Age roundhouse. The museum grew out of the collecting of local historians, with archaeology contributed by a local photographer, and was formally founded in 1964. That origin explains why the holdings lean so heavily towards ordinary tools, furniture and paperwork from these particular villages rather than showpiece treasures.

• Homes across the centuries: a fifteenth century crofter's cottage, an eighteenth century thatched longhouse, and a Victorian cottage with washhouse and dairy.
• Trades and shops: saddlery, carpentry and forging workshops, a vintage chemist, a 1950s village store, a schoolroom, and the Daylight Photographic Studio.
• Details worth hunting for: the witch post in Stang End cottage, a saltbox, the Farndale hearse, and a case of memorial cards.
• Land and animals: a farming area, heritage orchard, a cornfield sown with rare and endangered arable plants, and a Dig for Victory allotment. Rare breeds such as Manx Loaghtan sheep, Tamworth pigs and traditional chickens are kept for most of the year, so what you meet varies with the season.
• For families: a tractor zone, a gypsy caravan, giant Merrills, a coconut shy, and room to roam between buildings, plus an annual exhibition in the High Barn.

The site is open air and the weather here is changeable, so bring layers and something waterproof, and wear shoes that cope with grass, gravel and cobbles. There is no regular cafe on site, so plan food: bring a picnic for the orchard and green, or eat in the village at the pub or one of the tearooms. Toilets, including accessible toilets at the entrance and the High Barn, baby change and a gift shop are on site, and both cards and cash are accepted. Dogs on leads are welcome around the outdoor site. Parking is not on museum land: the pub car park sits immediately next door and a national park car park is roughly 300 metres away, and it is worth carrying some cash in case a village car park does not take cards. The Moorsbus usually serves Hutton-le-Hole in summer. For navigation, use postcode YO62 6UA or what3words nudge.sharpness.enthused.

Ground surfaces vary and are uneven, and the main green runs on a gentle slope, so this is not a flat, smooth-surfaced visit. All buildings are accessible at ground-floor level, but Pickard's Cottage has one small step and the Daylight Photographic Studio has two large ones. Free mobility scooters and manual wheelchairs can be borrowed, though the scooters cannot be taken inside the buildings. Wet or cold weather will shorten what you get from a visit, and the lack of an everyday cafe means food needs planning. A minority of visitors feel the site is smaller than they expected for what they paid, so it rewards people who like to look closely, read the detail and talk to staff rather than walk round quickly.