It lies on the River Riccal, 4 miles (6 km) to the south of the town of Kirkbymoorside.

The name derives either from the Old English mūsa cotes, meaning "mouse-ridden cottages", or from an Old Norse personal name Músi.

[4] In 1974 it became part of the new district of Ryedale, and on 1 April 1986 the parish was abolished and merged with Nunnington.

Sir Herbert Read, the poet and art critic, was born at Muscoates in 1893, the son of a farmer.

His fantasy novel The Green Child (1935) was described by the critic Geoffrey Wheatcroft in 1993 as "singular, odd, completely original".