The club is nearly 70 years old, having been founded in 1931 as the Newcastle Gliding Club. Most of the flying was then carried out at Sunderland Airport, now the location of the Nissan car factory.

The club moved to the present site on the North Yorkshire Moors in the early 1960's, and was renamed the Newcastle and Teesside Gliding Club and more recently it has become the Carlton Moor Gliding Club.

The site is a landmark on the Cleveland Way long distance walk, and there are a number of public footpaths across the site