Walking in North Yorkshire

The Lords Stones to Cringle Moor and Clough

6 miles Cold and bright

We parked at the newly refurbished Lords Stones Cafe. The name Lords Stones is taken from the ancient tumulus situated behind the cafe, close to the road. Tom Scott Burns tells us that the modern name is derived from the three estate boundaries, Helmsley, Busby and Whorlton, which all meet at that tumulus.

Tom Scott Burns' map of today's walk

The new Lords Stones Cafe

Looking back towards Lords Stones from Cringle Moor

Falconer's Seat

We walked through the cafe grounds and then turned right to climb up to the summit of Cringle Moor, often called Falconer's Seat and named after Alec Falconer, who I can remember writing the 'Wayfarer' column in the Saturday Evening Gazette in the 1950s. We paused to admire the view then walked on and after about 100 yards looked down onto a rockface where someone had carved 'Tempus exploro omnis negotium', which roughly translates as "I'll try anything once and everything in time."

Cringle Moor

View towards Roseberry Topping from Cringle Moor

'Tempus exploro omnis negotium'

We followed the National Parks stone path down to the col between Cringle and Cold Moors and walked past the stone plinth which is all that remains of Donnas Cross which TSB says is mentioned in the 1642 records of the Helmsley Estate.

Descending from Cringle Moor

Crow trap near larches on Cringle Moor. Curious birds enter for bait and cannot get out

Looking over at Cold Moor

Remains of Donnas Cross

Just past the cross we turned right into an old pannierman's trod which we followed for a couple of miles until we reached a yellow waymark and turned off just before Stone Intake Farm.


Cattle grazing between Cringle and Cold Moor

We walk boldly through but is that a......!

The Pannierman's Trod

From Pannierman's Road to Raisdale

We are told off as we pass Cold Moor Cote Farm

Leaving the road near to Stone Intake Farm

Our path across meadows has been little walked

We walked steeply downhill across a couple of fields to Raisdale Beck, and rejoined the road before quickly turning into Raisdale Mill where we saw a convenient seat for our coffee and scones. Facing us was a sign tempting us to enter an enchanted swamp!

"Not today, thank you"

Raisdale Mill

Alongside Raisdale Beck

We walked away from the mill along fields next to Raisdale Beck, which we then followed through a stretch of forest and more fields until we turned uphill to reach the ruined sheep farm at Clough.

We inspect the ruins of Clough

Path through a wet meadow

From Clough we walked across more meadows including one of soft rushes that was very wet underfoot. These meadows are full of sheep and we remembered the last time we walked through them in Spring when we saw a sheep that had no ears! Shortly afterwards we met the farmer's wife at Staindale Farm and told her about the sheep. "That's Lugless." she said. She told us that Lugless was a pet and was very lucky as, having no ears, he couldn't be tagged to send for market. "He'll never end up in the freezer!", she said.

"Lugless"

Show us your ears!

Walking through Staindale Farm last Spring

We walked through field after field of sheep but there was no sign of Lugless although he could have been hiding in the crowd.

The track soon led us to Thwaites House and then back to Lords Stones where we had a look at the new cafe and shop. It is now a very smart establishment and we felt more comfortable sitting outside in our dirty walking gear whilst enjoying a coffee and reflecting on our walk.