[1] It is situated about 10 miles (16 km) west of Pickering, near the southern boundary of the North York Moors National Park.

The village has a fish and chip shop, which is popular with the students returning from Ryedale School, and a bus stop operated by the East Yorkshire bus service which provides connections to most of North Yorkshire including major cities and coastal towns in the area including York, Scarborough and Bridlington.

St Gregory's Minster, the parish church in Kirkdale, has been in use since before the Norman Conquest.

It serves as the church of a local Ecumenical Partnership between Methodists and Anglicans.

Two miles (3.2 km) west of the village is Beadlam Roman villa, which was excavated in 1969 revealing two 4th-century rectangular buildings, the northernmost of which was fitted with a hypocaust overlain by a tessellated floor.