Hawnby Hill and Hazel Head from Hawnby

7 miles                                                 Fine and sunny

We arrived at Hawnby from the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley road via the Laskill turn off and parked at the roadside near the Inn at Hawnby.

Today's walk from The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills

The Inn at Hawnby

The village sits under Hawnby Hill (298m) whose twin Easterside Hill can be seen over towards the B1257.   These two hills, known as Corallian Outliers, once formed part of the Tabular Hills and have a very distinctive shape.    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.

Start of climb from Hawnby to the top of Hawnby Hill

Looking back at Hawnby from our climb

Nearing the top!

Looking over at Easterside Hill from Hawnby Hill

Looking the other way, down to Arden Hall among the trees

The ridge walk was exhilarating in the bright sunshine with fine views in all directions and soon we reached a precisely constructed limestone cairn at the highest point, so neatly built we suspect it to be the work of one person.  Carrying on we descended steeply off the end of the hill on a faint path and soon reached the Moor Gate.

Approaching the highest point and cairn

A very neat cairn at 978'

Exhilarating ridge walk

Steep descent to our green path to the Moor Gate, then the moor track of Sunley Slack

We passed through the Moor Gate and walked along the sandy path of Sunley Slack and after about a mile came to a fork in the road.  We took the left fork and followed the path, seemingly walking straight towards Bilsdale Mast.  To our right was Round Hill and Clive noticed a post with a direction arrow pointing towards it.  We knew we wanted to turn left away from Round Hill somewhere near here and when we looked on the other side of the post we saw the yellow waymark pointed straight across the moor, but we could see little sign of a path.  We walked a distance onto the heather and found a faint track which we joined, following it across Hawnby Moor towards Hazel Head Wood, with grouse butts to our right side.    

Looking back towards Hawnby Hill

Looking back to Hawnby Hill from Sunley Slack

Take the left fork!

Clive notices a waymark post

"Where's our path?"

We had been walking for some time and decided this would be a nice place to sit in the sun and have our coffee and scones. We sat looking towards the ruins of an old building which Tom Scott Burns tells us was once a Wesleyan Chapel.  The sun was very strong for October and I quickly replaced my hat as I found my bald head starting to burn.  Just before the old ruin we took a gate leading into Hazel Head Wood.  A faint green path led us past several ruined buildings (once Hazel Head Farm) and eventually our path disappeared among signs of recent tree felling.  We set off in the rough direction we wanted and came back onto the green path. The last time we walked this it had been set among conifers but these had all been cleared.

Faint moorland path towards Hazel Head Wood

Old Wesleyan Chapel near our coffee stop

Gate into Hazel Head Woods

Path through the woods

Our path , no longer enclosed by trees

The green path through the tree stumps led us down to the Osmotherly to Hawnby road which we joined for a couple of hundred yards before turning off into more woods. We walked along a wide path which quickly lost 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.

Leaving the road

Where's the path??

We find the bridge

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.  Once again at this point we wondered why someone had gone to the expense of this unusual bridge at such a quiet spot.  Perhaps a danger of flooding requires an arched bridge?

Blueberry Wood

Expensive arched bridge

A short scramble uphill from the bridge led to a well defined track bearing right, where we were surprised to come upon a party of about a dozen hikers, the first people we had seen today.   Once again our path became very faint as we walked through several fields passing cattle and sheep before suddenly emerging onto the Hawnby road once more, conveniently near the Inn at Hawnby where we sampled their Timothy Taylor Landlord.

A faint path through fields

Clive strides purposefully towards the Inn at Hawnby

Cheers!