Walking in North Yorkshire

Kepwick and Cowesby from Over Silton

5.5 miles warm and sunny

This week I bought a copy of Tom Scott Burns' book 'The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills from Abe Books on the internet, for just 1p plus postage. A great buy! The Hambleton Hills are just south of the Cleveland Hills and both form part of the North York Moors Will my 'new' book's walks be as good as TSB's Cleveland Hills Guide? We'll see but at least it will give us another 20 walks to try, although of course as they are further afield than the Cleveland Hills our driving time is increased.

We thought we might as well start at the beginning of the book with Walk 2. (Walk 1 is 10.5 miles and we'll save that for when we feel like a long walk!) Today's walk is about 6 miles and is circular, as all our walks tend to be.

Leaving over Silton

We left Over Silton and turning into a field and onto our first footpath we saw immediately that this was not going to be a trail that is much frequented. Long grass and nettles were order of the day and wet grass too, as there had been heavy overnight rain. We quickly reached the very neat and tidy Greystone Farm where we saw some unusual hens and a sign offering 'free eggs', although there was a donation box for a local charity. A sign said the farm specialised in Suffolk sheep and we soon came to field full of them. We were taken with how big and friendly they were, coming to the fence as if they expected to be fed.

Animals of Greystone Farm

We walked on to Nether Silton, then through field after field where our trail had became almost non-existent in the long wet grass. Only the occasional yellow footpath sign (and my GPS track of course) showed us that we were on the right trail. We crossed the remains of a narrow gauge railway that had once been used to carry limestone from the Hambleton Hills to the Thirsk turnpike road, then joined a narrow road, Peasland Lane, that led us round to the village of Cowesby. As we entered the village we walked into the old churchyard and after admiring the church, which appeared disused, we sat on its steps and had our coffee and scones.

Remains of old narrow gauge railway

Cowesby Church

Cowesby

Back into Cowesby, we walked through the pretty village before turning north across fields to the village of Kepwick. We decided not to explore Kepwick as next week's walk will begin there, but pressed on back across the old railway and across fields where we lost the path for a time, zig-zagging up and down a couple of fields with wet legs and nettle stings before we eventually found the old footbridge across aptly named Sorrow Beck and rejoined the trail.

Clive spots the footbridge!

Looking down towards Northallerton and the A19

Young pheasant

At this point we saw quite a few young pheasants which hurried nervously along the hedgerow and I took the above photo of a bird which Clive and I thought was reluctant to move because it was brilliantly camouflaged. Now, on examining the photo on my computer, I see what appears to be blood on the bird and I wonder if it is an early casualty of this years shooting, the Glorious Twelfth being just three days ago.

Buzzards above Pen Hill

More fields, one of which was circumnavigated very nervously as it contained a bull and cows that were busy mating and we didn't want to distract them. We approached Nether Silton once more, although on a different footpath to our outward journey. We have walked through Nether Silton on several occasions but but this was the first time we have entered the village via the Manor House field and consequently managed to find the old monolith mentioned in a couple of TSB's walk descriptions. The large old standing stone has letters carved into its face, each letter representing a word.

Monolith at Nether Silton

The carved letters stand for:
"Here The Grand Old Manor House Stood, The Black Beams Were Oak The Great Walls Were Good
The Walls At The East Wing Are Hidden Here, A Thatched Cottage Like A Barn Was Erected Here
AD 1765
A Wide Porch Spans A Yard And Alcove

Me and the monolith (I'm wearing the hat)

We were both very pleased to have found the stone, which stands in a field near the present manor house. We exited onto the road that runs through Nether Silton and crossed to a little track alongside the old post office. Following it we now navigated another network of field paths to return to Over Silton, via the quaint old church of St Mary., which stands in a field and has no road or footpath to service it. This church dates back to Norman times and in the last year or so Clive and I have often sat in its churchyard to drink our coffee, but having no coffee left today we pressed on back to the road where I had left my car.