It is on the edge of the North York Moors National Park at 460 feet (140 m), and about six miles (9.7 km) north-east of Thirsk.

[2] Ravensthorpe Manor House, built in the mid 19th century, is situate 0.5 miles (0.8 km) west of the village.

[citation needed] The eastern part of the Boltby was affected by flooding in 2005 when Gurtof Beck overflowed and damaged or destroyed buildings.

[1] The low level geology of the area is of Devensian clay on beds of lower Jurassic lias.

[10] About 1.0 mile (1.6 km) south of the village and to the immediate north-west of Tang Hall Farm[11] (also known as Ravensthorpe Mill), is the site of the mediaeval moated castle or fortified manor house[12] of Ravensthorpe,[11] listed three times as a subsidiary manor in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Ravenestorp and Ravenetorp.

Cantilupe's other seats included Greasley in Nottinghamshire; Ilkeston in Derbyshire and Middle Claydon in Buckinghamshire.

Romanby's water flowed through a pipe laid alongside the railway line from Thirsk and was supplied separately from the remainder of Northallerton for many years.

Supply ceased to be drawn from the reservoir and operation / ownership was involuntarily transferred to Ryedale Joint Water Board.

[18][19] Although now without a public house, the village had four during construction of the reservoir leading to incidents of unrest on site.