South Stainley is a small village in the Harrogate District, in the county of North Yorkshire, England.

South Stainley has a pub and a place of worship, St Wilfrid's Church, which is a grade II listed structure.

[2] The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as having 30 plough lands and a meadow covering 8 acres (3.2 ha).

[4][5] Historically, the village was in the wapentake of Claro,[6] and is now in the Borough of Harrogate, some 5 miles (8 km) south of Ripon.

Cayton is the site of a deserted medieval village 1-mile (1.6 km) west of South Stainley and was the location of a grange established by Fountains Abbey in the Middle Ages.