The River Rye in the English county of North Yorkshire rises just south of the Cleveland Hills, east of Osmotherley. It flows through Ryedale and the communities of Hawnby, Rievaulx, Helmsley, Nunnington, West and East Ness, Butterwick, Brawby, and Ryton, before joining the River Derwent at 54°10′N 00°44′W / 54.167°N 0.733°W near Malton.
The river valley (dale) gave its name to the Ryedale District, a former shire district that extended southwest into the Vale of Pickering along the River Derwent. The district existed from 1974 to 2021, when it was subsumed into the larger North Yorkshire unitary authority.