Hawnby Hill and Hazel Head from Hawnby

7 miles    High cloud, dry and fairly warm

Our third walk from Hawnby in as many weeks, this time from the top of the village where we parked in a small car park near to the Inn at Hawnby.

 

TSB's map of today's walk from The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills

The village sits under Hawnby Hill, (298m) the twin of  Easterside Hill that we walked round a couple of weeks ago.  These two hills, known as Corallian Outliers, once formed part of the Tabular Hills.  We left the road opposite the Inn and immediately started to climb across a field, then through bracken until we reached the top of Hawnby Hill. From here there is a good view in all directions, to the left down to Arden Hall and to the right Easterside Hill.  We walked along the long ridge identifying places we had passed on our previous walks.

 Looking back towards Hawnby as we near the top of Hawnby Hill

 Looking to the left we see Arden Hall amongst the trees

 The view ahead along the ridge of Hawnby Hill

To the right is Easterside Hill

Just before the end of the ridge the path bears right and then drops down to Moor Gate and the road.  We crossed the road and joined a sandy track for a couple of miles.  As we walked we saw a gamekeeper's 4x4 with dead rabbits in a box but no sign of the gamekeeper even though we could see for miles in all directions.

Looking back from Hawnby Moor towards Hawnby Hill

Gamekeeper's 4x4...

...and its grisly cargo!

Reaching Round Hill our path turned left from the main track and we walked towards Hazel Head Wood. Just before we entered the wood we found some crater like holes that were sheltered and facing towards the ruins of an old barn.  We sat here and enjoyed our coffee and scones while referring to the Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills where Tom Scott Burns informed us that these craters were known as 'Hell Holes' in the past but were actually formed by different grits in the strata being dissolved by water.    He also mentioned that the ruined barn had once been used as a Wesleyan Chapel.

 Walking towards Hazel Head Wood

Looking down from our coffee stop towards the old barn

A gate led us into the woods and a faint track led us past more ruins, the long abandoned Hazel Head Farm.  The ground was very damp and sunlight didn't penetrate the trees and we were interested in the numerous types of fungi growing everywhere we looked.  

 Ruin of Hazel Head Farm

We came out of the woods onto the road near to Hazel Head Car Park before re-entering the trees of Ellers Wood.  All along this stretch of woodland are bird feeders and we were constantly surprised as startled pheasants took to the air in large numbers.  

 A grim warning - dead crows tied near to bird feeders

 The wide path loses height and eventually led us to the River Rye where forestry vehicles could obviously pass through a foot or so of water, but we searched for the footbridge mentioned by TSB.  We quickly found it and backtracked slightly on the forestry path to fight our way through the bracken and brambles to reach the bridge, which is obviously little used by walkers.

 Hidden bridge

Clives checks the map!

We followed our path upwards alongside a beck and then the trees of Blueberry Wood before dropping down past St Agnes House and Half Moon Plantation and to a large arched footbridge over the River Rye.  We wondered why someone had gone to the expense of  this unusual bridge at this quiet spot.  Perhaps a danger of flooding requires an arched bridge?

 Large arched footbridge over the River Rye

 View upriver from the footbridge

A quick scramble upwards led us to a well defined path that runs alongside the trees, taking us through field after field of cattle until we suddenly dropped back down onto the Hawnby Road and the awaiting Inn at Hawnby.

 Looking up at Hill End House from our trail

Our path gets fainter

Walk over, the view from The Inn at Hawnby

 

Coomb Hill and Dale Town from Hawnby

5.5 miles  Good weather with high cloud

 

We drove past last week's parking place at the old Wesleyan Chapel and followed the narrow lane down towards the River Rye and All Saints Church, where I parked on a wide grassy verge.  We put our boots on and went to look round the old church, which is Norman and was rebuilt in the 14th Century.  The church is unlocked and we went inside where we found a fine stained-glass war memorial window and in front of it a wreath to the four German Airmen killed at Pepper Hill, whose death I mentioned in last week's walk description.
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 Tom Scott Burns' map of today's walk

 War Memorial Window and wreath to German Aircrew

All Saints Church at Hawnby

 A cautionary epitaph

We left the church and walked over Church Bridge where we turned sharp right along a farm track towards the woods of Coomb Hill.  At this right turn we saw a footpath sign inscribed with The Inn Way logo and realised we were joining that long distance walk for a while.  

Our footpath skirted the woods and the track was very indistinct in places, sometimes just an impression in the grass and bracken.  At the end of the woods we had to double back on ourselves.  It seemed wrong but this is the direction the right of way takes.  It was confusing but suddenly we came to a gate which had a board and a map with a "You are Here!" arrow and all became clear.  We were very close to the road which we quickly joined and which led us passed Arden Hall.

 Indistinct paths lead us around Coomb Hill

 Arden Hall

Once past the hall the road became little more than a cart track and we followed it steadily uphill until we reached an old limestone quarry, after which we turned left onto Dale Town Common. The long climb from Arden Hall to the open plateau of Dale Town Common had given us an appetite and as it was nearly noon we decided to pause for our coffee and scones.  We sat with a spectacular view down onto Thorodale Lake below us and over to the right, our walk so far.

 Looking down on Thorodale Lake from our coffee stop

 Looking right from our coffee stop, back at Coomb Hill woods to the left

Setting off again we walked across Dale Town Common following a green lane which seemed little used by man or beast (well just a few sheep) and which had a good springy surface. We reached an old water tank and climbing up to look inside saw that it was still full of water.  

The high plateau of  Dale Farm Common

 Old water tank

We turned left just past this point and followed a long straight walk through fields until we came to an old barn which is marked on the OS map as High Buildings.  The field here was full of cattle which had made a mess of the track but just past the buildings we had a good view over to the twin mounds of Hawnby Hill and Easterside Hill, the latter of which we walked last week.  

Just past the barn are a series of mounds which Tom Scott Burns tells us are a group of bronze age tumuli, one of which was excavated in the 1850s and found to contain the skeleton of an Anglo-Saxon lady of rank.  She wore a leather girdle round her waist with a gold clasp inlaid with a cross of garnets and her hair was secured with gold and silver.  

 Tumuli

View across Toad Hole from Sunny Bank Farm, Easterside Hill in the distance

We walked on towards Sunny Bank Farm and noticed a sign pointing sharp left which said, "View Point" and "Clean Path for walkers."  This should have been our trail but mistakenly we continued along the main path which eventually brought us down to Hawnby Bridge, and gave us an additional half mile walk along the road.

 Hawnby Bridge

As we neared the church and my car we saw the rigid steel Dalicar Bridge on our left, where our footpath should have brought us out onto the road, thus is the way with walking!

Hawnby, Easterside Hill and Shaken Bridge

7.5 miles, cloudy but fairly warm

We parked next to the restored Wesleyan Chapel in Hawnby and walked back to the T junction where we entered a meadow next to an old green footpath sign.  The grass in the meadow was wet but not too long and we quickly noticed that this doesn't appear to be a well walked path, in fact there doesn't appear to be any path at all.

A climb, picking out where we thought the path should be, led us to some woodland and Easterside Farm where we crossed the road back into more fields under a large mound called Easterside Hill. 

Map from The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills

Hawnby

Unfortunately we were not alone in these fields.  A large herd of frisky bullocks raced across towards us and then, just as we were considering climbing the fence they veered off and charged away from us.  We went forward cautiously but the bullocks decided they would accompany us and rushed through the open gate into the next field, where our faint path was leading us.  We followed gingerly and eventually circumnavigated them, leaving them behind as we reached Pepper Hill looking out at the magnificent views towards Bilsdale.

 Pheasant pen near Easterside Hill

As we walked round Pepper Hill we noticed a large gap in the wall on the east side which is mentioned by Tom Scott Burns in his book and which is still not repaired today.  This is the spot where a German Dornier plane crashed in December 1942, killing the four airmen aboard.

Although this point was only about a third of the way through the walk we noticed it was already 11.45am and as we had an excellent view looking down towards the B1257 Helmsley Road below us, we decided this would be a good spot to have our coffee and scones sitting on the scattered stones left in the hollow made by the Dornier.

 Looking across at Sportsman's Hall

Paths were indistinct for most of the walk

Hole in wall left by WW2 Dornier, Easterside Hill in background

Looking down from our coffee stop towards the B1257

This years heather is now past its best.  Contouring around Pepper Hill

We walked on across more meadows containing horses and this time, some rather sleepy cattle. We crossed a bridge then a path diversion led us around a very smart looking house which TSB describes as a pig rearing farm (Fair Hill Farm) but which now looks like an executive home.  The same path leads past another property called Broadway Foot  Farm but this also no longer looks like a working farm and we were sorry to see that the main building had been destroyed by fire, obviously very recently.

Clive framed by Rowan Trees.  We've noticed a very heavy crop of  berries this year

Sleepy cattle ignored us in this field

 1969 tractor still in use

Bridge near Fair Hill Farm 

We walked down from the burnt building to Shaken Bridge, which TSB explains is from the Old English 'Sceacre Bridge', or Robber's Bridge.  It's now a road bridge with a lovely view of the River Rye and we stood watching a grey wagtail on branches below us before crossing it and turning sharp left into a lane leading upwards to East Ley Wood.  The lane climbed to a large old barn at Peak Scar Top and more magnificent views.  We walked along a nice track at the wood's edge and then exited onto a road which led us gently down to Hawnby Bridge.  As we entered the village a friendly horse came over to see us and after stroking its nose Clive gave it one of his menthol eucalyptus sweets which the horse seemed to relish, stretching its lips back and breathing very noisily.  This brought other horses towards us and we moved quickly off, supplies being limited!

 Weather vane at Broadway Foot

 Broadway Foot main building

 The River Rye from Shaken Bridge

Looking back while climbing to Peak Scar Top

 

 Hawnby from East Ley Woods

 

"Wow, that cleared the tubes!"

A short walk brought us back to the Wesleyan Chapel and our car.
A nice walk but many fields had cattle and horses to negotiate.  Indistinct paths mean it would be wet in winter.