Coomb Hill and Dale Town from Hawnby

5.5 miles  Wet, grey and misty

We intended to park by the church at Hawnby, but turning left at Hawnby Bridge came upon an accident between a 4x4 and a van which had blocked the road.  No-one was hurt but we took the female 4x4 driver to her brother's farm near Hawnby and situated on the road we would now need to take to reach the church.  She told us her brother would clear the road with his tractor so we left her at the farm and continued to the church where we found the ground too wet to park.  We decided to return to the Methodist Hall car park in the village and walk from there.

 

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

 

We walked down from the village towards the River Rye and All Saints Church which we decided to look around before our walk, while we were still clean.  The church was open and we went inside to find a very well kept church.  The most interesting feature for me was the beautiful stained glass window in memorial to the German aircrew that had been killed when their plane crashed at nearby Pepper Hill, the site of which we passed a couple of weeks ago when walking Easterside Hill.  Another very attractive window showed the parable of the seeds falling on stony ground and another side window showed St George and St Stephen.  

 

All Saints in the mist

Memorial to German aircrew

Some fell on stony ground...

 

Leaving the church we rejoined the road and crossed Church Bridge before turning right into fields at a signpost marked Arden Hall.  Although the path climbed through a field of cattle we bravely marched onwards before noticing the bull.  Now taking a more circuitous route we passed to the side of some cows and calves before leaving the field and heading towards the woods at Coomb Hill.

 

 

Church Bridge

Leaving the road

Climbing towards Coomb Hill

Our presence is noticed

 

Our indistinct footpath skirted the woods of Coomb Hill, eventually doubling back on itself and depositing us at a tarmac road where we turned left towards the gates of Arden Hall.  We could just see the building through the mist.

 

 

Climbing towards Coomb Hill

We enter the woods

Arden Hall

 

Once we had passed the Hall gates the road became little more than a farm track, although an old but newly painted Yorks North Riding road sign pointed along it indicating Kepwick.  Immediately in front of the road sign was another saying 'Unsuitable for motor vehicles'.  We now began a steep climb of nearly a mile until we reached the site of an old quarry.  Here we found a large boulder by the side of the road which made an ideal seat, so we adjourned for coffee and scones.

 

To Kepwick, but...

Our road becomes a track

 

A long climb...

 

Setting off once more we turned left off the track almost immediately and climbed a track onto Dale Common.  It now started to rain in earnest and looking back we saw nothing but mist,  in sharp contrast to the last time we walked here in the summer of 2013, when we had fine views down to the lake behind Arden Hall.

 

Today's view

Summer 2013 from almost the same point

These are the views you should get as you climb onto Dale Common

 

Our view became poorer as the mist descended but we knew we had to continue across Dale Common until we came to an old water tank, where we turned left.  Our faint path took us across several fields until we reached an old building used as a shelter by cattle and shown on the map as Old Barn.  Our path near the building had been turned into a sea of mud so we decided to skirt the building to the left, our route bringing us back to the path beyond the building and near to some tumuli.  Tom Scott Burns tells us these 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.  

 

On Dale Common

Turn right at the old water tank

Towards Old Barn

We emerge near tumuli

Looking back across tumuli to Old Barn

 

We walked on towards Sunny Bank Farm and noticed a sign pointing sharp left which said, "View Point" and "Clean path for dog-walkers."  We remembered from last time that this was the path we should have taken when we instead walked on to the road beyond Hawnby.  This badly signed path actually leads to Hawnby Church so we set off across the fields going steeply downhill.

 

 

Hawnby Hill comes into view through the mist

Faint path downhill

A yellow waymark keeps us right

Looking down to Church Bridge

 

Church Bridge came into view but Hawnby Church remained stubbornly hidden amongst the trees.  As we reached the bottom of our descent we saw an ancient tractor parked outside a hut and going down for a better look discovered another inside the hut.  We reckoned they must be from the 1950s and would be well worth renovating. 

 

 

Fordson Major Diesel

 

One more gate to negotiate and it was a muddy one, then across the River Rye on a footbridge and we joined the road to walk back to our car.  A very short drive took us to the Inn at Hawnby where we enjoyed a pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord and were able to supply the bar staff with all the details they required about this morning's accident.

 

 

Negotiating the mud

Footbridge near church

Hawnby