Kirby Knowle to Felixkirk and Boltby
8.5 miles Fine and warm
We approached Kirby Knowle from the Knayton A19 turn-off and parked at the side of the road opposite St Wilfred's Church.
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| Today's walk from The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills |
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| St Wilfred's Church |
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| Looking towards the altar |
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Modern window dedicated to Doctor Jane Rajan
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There is a fine modern window dedicated to Doctor Jane Rajan. See this link for more information.
We left the church and walked out of the village towards Upsall along the tarmac road. Over to our right, high on the hill, we saw the imposing 'Newbuilding'. Although it is called Newbuilding, Tom Scott Burns explains that it actually dates from the 13th century. It has been
restored and modernised but still contains many of its original
features.
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| Walking from Kirby Knowle towards Upsall |
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| 'Newbuilding' |
Just before Upsall we turned off the
road into fields and followed a little walked and very overgrown path to
Turton Beckstead. Beckstead means 'a farm near a river' and as we
reached the beck we saw that a large stone engraved 'The Turton Beckstead' which we had seen on a previous walk was now covered in moss and illegible, and remained so despite Clive's efforts to clean the lettering. There are a lot of building stones here and it looks as if an old bridge has collapsed.
TSB informs us that in the 1860s some mourners
were carrying a body to Kirby Knowle for burial. The bearers set down
the coffin to briefly rest at this spot but on lifting it again it felt
much lighter and they discovered that the corpse had disappeared. The
empty coffin was buried and the site at Beckstead Wood became known as
Lost Corpse End.
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| Climbing out of Turton Beckstead |
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| Our path is hidden at the field edges |
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| We pass a couple of fields that have been left to return to nature.... |
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| Meadow Salsify or Jack Go To Bed at Noon flourish in this field |
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| Approaching the Felixkirk road.... |
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| ...but first a couple of rickety stiles |
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| Our path disappears amongst the wild flowers |
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| Felixkirk appears in the distance |
Our path does not appear to have been walked and we relied on yellow way mark signs on the field edges to keep us right.
We soon arrived at a tarmac road and walked
into Felixkirk. We were fortunate to find the church
unlocked and going inside met the church warden who asked us if we were looking for a particular grave. He told us he had a map of the graveyard we could study. We assured him that we were just nosy hikers who were just passing by.
St
Felix's is a large church for the size of the village and in very good
repair. Nice windows and again I was impressed by a modern window,
dedicated to a retired army officer.
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| Pointer weather-vane at Felixkirk |
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| Walking through the village |
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| St Felix church at Felixkirk |
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| Interesting carved heads at St Felix Church |
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| The interior |
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| Old slab, note spelling of Felixkirk |
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| 'Twenty years I was a maid, 1 year I was a wife. 18 hours a mother, and then departed life' |
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| St Felix, another view |
We were pleased to see that sheep were being used to keep the grass down in the churchyard. A very sensible idea, we thought.
We retraced our steps to the outskirts
of Felixkirk and turned right at a road junction and passed the lodge to
Mount St John,
once a preceptory in the days of Henry I. We turned right down a lane
towards Cinque Cliff House where the path has been diverted by the new
owners through fields around the back of the house. While on this
diversion we sat on the
sloping fields with a nice view to our left of Whitestone Cliff, to
enjoy our coffee and scones in the warm sunshine.
We set off once more and our diversion rejoined the track below Cinque Cliff House and we followed a grassy lane to the road, where we turned left and walked into Thirlby.
As we passed The Forge cottage we noticed a cupboard with a sign advertising 'Jam for Sale'. I couldn't resist a jar of home made raspberry jam and stuck it in my rucksack pocket. Now tested and found to be delicious, it will be ideal for next week's scones!
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| Horse and cat weather-vane at Thirlby |
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| Pear Tree House, home of the Wren Man |
Thirlby is famous as the home of a
woodcarver, Bob Hunter, who worked with 'Mouseman' Thomson of nearby
Kilburn. Bob used the trademark of a wren and his workshop is Pear Tree
House down by the ford.
We walked past the workshop and some attractive cottages before turning left into fields.
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| 'No shop or inn is there here about, so why not sit down and enjoy summat for nowt' - donated by 'two good sorts' |
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| We leave the road at Thirlby |
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| We have never seen another stile designed like this one |
Just past the ford we left the village
through a gateway into a field where we followed a barely discernible
track to Tang Hall, crossing a couple of becks and an unusual stile on
the way.
We turned left at the packhorse bridge
and walked through the pretty village of Boltby before turning right at a
waymarked sign at the lane between Spring Garth and Gurtof House. We
then followed a series of field boundaries to reach the modern mansion
of Ravensthorpe Manor.
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| Making friends near Ravensthorpe Manor |
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| Is someone hoping to surprise us? |
As we approached the manor house we
walked through a couple of fields containing horses, who seemed
largely indifferent to us and we climbed above the manor house into Westow Plantation.
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| Climbing into Westow Plantation |
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| View towards Thirsk from Westow Plantation |
A pleasant walk through the woods followed and we gradually dropped back to Kirby Knowle and our car.
We highly recommend this route. We think it's one of TSB's best paths that is obviously rarely walked, yet it passes through some of the prettiest and most unspoiled areas of North Yorkshire.
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| Pheasants near a feeder |
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| Female pheasant |
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| Young pheasants |
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| Kirby Knowle's rooftops |
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| ... and back to St Wilfred's |
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