The Dark Bordered Beauty moth is one of Britain’s rarest insects, and its last English population is at Strensall Common near York. People have been making pilgrimage to see this moth for nearly 200 years, and the species has been a nexus through which the lives of an array of historical characters has passed; some famous, others hardly known but nonetheless remarkable. Through stories like these we may find the inspiration and understanding to sustain us through a challenging future.