ACTOR Ian McNicol will be stepping out next week - following in the footsteps of a 7th Century bishop.

He will be playing the role of Bishop Colman in a re-enactment of his journey across the North York Moors to the Synod of Whitby in the year 664 AD.

And 21st Century hikers and visitors are being invited to join him as he heads from Kildale at 10am to the Moors Centre at Danby, calling at Commondale and Castleton along the way.

The walk through Eskdale on Wednesday is part of the Festival on the Moor, which gets under way tomorrow and finishes on Sunday, September 15.

The festival is helping to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the North York Moors National Park, and will be launched by a concert with Dave Swarbrick and his band at the Moors Centre tomorrow.

* Bishop Colman, the bishop of Lindisfarne, was the spokesman for the Celtic church at the historic Whitby Synod which decided on the date for the observance of Easter.