IT’S to be hoped the good folk of Fryup, in the North York Moors, don’t veto the plan to rename their valley Vegan Fryup for World Vegan Day on Saturday.

Fryup – the name – is a priceless USP for this tributary valley of Upper Eskdale, inland from Whitby. There’s probably never been a visitor - at least not one actually brain dead – who hasn’t been intrigued by the amusing culinary name.

In fact there are two Fryups, Great and Little, neither of which has any special link to a frying pan. They’re parallel valleys, connected at the top by a road skirting the head of a small, dividing flat-topped hill. And their adjectives are misleading too. Both are small by most dale standards.

Top billing, though has to be for Little Fryup – truly a dale in miniature, an absolute gem. My wife and I often walk there from Danby, over the easy, heather covered Ainthorpe Rigg. There are ancient standing stones, sweeping views back over and down Eskdale, with Roseberry Topping peering in, and then, suddenly, tiny Little Fryupdale appears at your feet, a green oasis with just a couple of farms.

You descend to a close-cropped common, usually adorned with its grazing sheep. A well-sited millennium seat is the perfect place for a packed lunch, before a return can be made either along a bridleway or simply the valley road, virtually traffic free.

Great Fryup’s strength is its wild valley head. There’s a sometimes-impressive waterfall and, more obvious, a striking jumble of sizeable grassy mounds - a scene unlike any other in the North York Moors. Seemingly glacial, they’re former coal tips, reclaimed by nature. Look hard enough and the remains of one or two buildings can still be discerned.

But what of that distinctive name? Word has got about that it’s from a goddess, Frige. But academics are unsure. Admitting “some difficulty”, A. H Smith’s classic The Place Name of the North Riding suggests the name is “possibly an Old English personal name, Friga.”

But the key part of the name is the last bit. This is believed to be a form of ‘hop’, which earns six pages – no less – in Margaret Gelling’s authoritative Place Names in the Landscape. ‘Hope’ is another derivative, and Dr Gelling points out its prevalence in Weardale – e.g. Stanhope, Rookhope and several others.

Apparently, ‘hop’ is Old English for “a remote enclosed place.” That certainly fits Fryup, Great and Little. It was still quite remote up to the middle of the last century. Six gates had to be opened to navigate Great Fryup. Concern by the local doctor led to a campaign to have them removed – an improvement marked by an engraved stone, bearing the sound advice: Use Well Time Saved.

At the portal of Little Fryup stands Danby Castle, once a home of Katherine Parr, last wife of Henry VIII. Its remains grafted into a farmhouse, it’s now a venue for weddings and receptions. The last twice my wife and I have passed by, a wedding party has been in the courtyard, one accompanied by a folk band.

It’s unlikely any reception there features a fryup. Which seems a pity – great or little as you may choose.