Captain Cook Country from Great Ayton

8 miles                            Snow and ice

We parked at the roadside in Great Ayton High Street and walked down to leave the road and cross the steel bridge over the Leven, opposite Suggits Ice Cream Parlour.

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

Ayton High Street from our car park spot

Captain Cook

The River Leven from the steel bridge

Tom Scott Burns remarks that Great Ayton was known as Canny Yatton and in the early 1800s was the haunt of Au'd Nanny, a notorious witch described in Blakeborough's dialect verse T' Hunt o' Yatton Brigg.

"Her naals they war lang, an' humped war her back,

An baith lugs war pointed, her skin ommaist black... "

Just over the steel bridge we came to an old 'pissoir', now sited as a tourist attraction, and not a working one.  I remember when I was a boy it was painted green and when out on my bike I was glad to come across it, sited further up the High Street near what used to be the Friends' School.

We followed the river along field paths towards Little Ayton.

Pissoir, but not for use

Field tracks towards Little Ayton

We passed by Woodhouse Farm and after crossing a couple more fields came to a stile and a tarmac road.  We followed the road through Low Easby Village where we admired a 1966 Land Rover.  We stopped at Easby Mill to chat to a couple of friendly geese and I was pleased to spot a nice weather-vane featuring a huntsman.  

Woodhouse Farm

Horses at Woodhouse Farm

Looking back at Woodhouse Farm

Leaving the fields to join the Easby road

Easby and 1966 Land Rover

Weathervane at Easby Mill

Clive chats to a couple of geese

"Any food?"

We stayed on the tarmac road for half a mile carefully avoiding patches of black ice, before crossing a way-marked stile into fields just before Borough Green Farm, to begin a steady climb to Easby Moor.

Distinctive Kerry Hills, Welsh hill sheep at Easby

We follow the tarmac road for half a mile or so

Leaving at this stile to follow field tracks

A slow climb up to the moor

Looking back towards Easby

Through the moor gate and turn right

Reaching the Moor Gate we turned right to follow our path below the moor to Mill Bank Wood.   Entering the wood we walked for over a mile.  Our path had been used by motor cycles and horses which, together with snow and ice made it very awkward to walk. TSB says that the wood is named after an old Bleach Mill where woollen cloth was 'fulled' in order to soften and shrink it to a warmer, closer weave. The mill was destroyed on the night of 21st July 1840 when heavy rains caused enormous volumes of water to burst two fishponds at Kildale Hall. A wall of water 40 feet high carried away two stone bridges, a corn mill, sluice gates, an earth dam and the bleaching mill, as it rushed towards Great Ayton.  

We came out of the woods by Bankside Farm and joined the tarmac lane.  We sat on convenient stones in front of a barn to enjoy our coffee and scones while looking down towards Kildale and the old Church.  While we were sipping coffee a large walking group passed us with cheery remarks, the only other people we saw on the hills today.

Entering Mill Bank Wood

The old buildings of Bankside Farm

Looking down to Kildale Church from our coffee stop

Kildale from our coffee stop

A group of walkers pass by

We followed the farm road uphill from Bankside Farm until we came to a fork where we turned left to walk through the trees of Coate Moor.  A gentle climb along an icy path led us to Captain Cook's Monument.

Kildale Hall from our coffee stop

We leave the tarmac to follow the Cleveland Way

Towards Captain Cook's Monument

Crossing Coate Moor towards the monument

Memorial plaque on Monument

Looking back to Captain Cook's Monument

After admiring the monument and reading its inscription we continued across Easby Moor between two stone gate posts before reaching a clearly marked path downhill to our left.

Our path was very slippery with hard ice which turned to mud as we reached the steep descent from the moor.  I fell over only once!

Approaching the descent from Easby Moor

A slippery descent

Nearly down...

Roseberry from our path

The path levelled out and we walked through the snow and mud alongside Nanny Howe to our right, which is where Au'd Nanny held midnight orgies at the legendary Devil's Court.  We reached the tidy cottages and the White House at Gribdale Gate and crossed the lane to carry on uphill towards Aireyholme Farm, where Captain Cook's father was bailiff in 1736 and where his family took up residence.  

 

Alongside Nanny Howe

Tidy cottages at Gribdale

Aireyholme Farm, once the home of Captain Cook's family

Duckpond at Aireyholme Farm

 We spotted a new information sign at Aireyholme Farm.

We read the sign with interest and then continued along the track which brought us to tiny Airy Holme Cottage where we turned sharp left to cross fields to approach Cliff Rigg Quarry from the opposite side to last week, when we walked round the flanks of Roseberry Topping.

 

We followed the path straight downhill below the quarry, crossed the railway line once more and followed a muddy path alongside Cleveland Lodge, which eventually led us back into Great Ayton.

Clive commiserates with cattle wintering in the barn

A muddy and icy descent to the railway at Easby

We cross the line near the old station house

A muddy path alongside Cleveland Lodge

To our surprise the path emerged on the High Street, opposite the Royal Oak Public House and as we felt that our exertions deserved a reward we popped in for a pint of Deuchars India Pale Ale.