Walking in North Yorkshire

Hawnby Hill and Hazel Head from Hawnby

7 miles Wet and cold

Following a couple of wet days we wanted a walk that would be fairly firm underfoot and this walk should do. It combines the best of moorland, woods, pasture and villages. It's mostly good underfoot and not too difficult, but as there are a couple of good climbs, it isn't too easy.

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

We arrived at Hawnby from the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley road via the Laskill turn off and parked at the roadside shown by the P in the map above, just up the road from the old Inn at Hawnby.

We were pleased to see builders hard at work on the old Inn and chatted to one. He told us that the new manager was due to take over the pub in February to supervise decorating. He thought it would be open for Spring. Good news for the village and for us too, of course.

Renovations at The Inn at Hawnby

The car dashboard reported 3 degrees outside temperature and we got straight into wet weather gear, setting off in heavy rain.

The upper village sits right 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.

Setting off in a downpour

Hawnby below

Into the bracken

Climbing Hawnby Hill

Crossing a field we climbed through dying bracken to reach the top of Hawnby Hill and from here there is a good view in all directions; to the left down to Arden Hall and to the right, Easterside Hill.

Looking left down to St Agnes Farm

Looking right to Easterside Hill

We now had a fine ridge walk along the top of Hawnby Hill and soon reached the highest point, a cairn at 978 feet. A new addition is a memorial bench just by the cairn, where one could sit with a fine view down to Arden Hall, but today's rain kept us moving.

Cairn and memorial bench at 978'

Memorial bench

Fairy ring on Hawnby Hill

We walked along the ridge to the end of Hawnby Hill enjoying picking out familiar sights and walks that we could see from this vantage point, and then descended to Hawnby Moor and the moor gate at Sunley Slack.

We reach the end of the ridge, Sunley Slack ahead

Looking back at our steep descent

Into the weather

We passed the moor gate and walked along the sandy path of Sunley Slack coming to a fork in the road after about a mile. We took the left fork and followed the path, seemingly walking straight towards Bilsdale Mast. To our right was Round Hill which is simply a collection of rocks and a bump in the heather.

Moor gate

As big as dinner plates!

Looking back at Hawnby Hill on right and Easterside Hill

Sunley Slack

Eventually we came to a series of direction posts on our right. We ignored the first two and about 20 feet past the third we turned sharp left on a small track to cross the moor.

There is very little sign of the path indicated by Tom Scott Burns on the map above, and we made our way sometimes through heather and sometimes on sheep tracks, all the time heading towards Hazel Head Wood which we could see to our left in the distance.

Reaching the wood we walked alongside it, gradually dropping downhill until the ruined Wesleyan Chapel suddenly came into view. Alongside the wood are numerous ants' nests, some up to three feet tall. On previous walks we have stopped at the chapel for our coffee but rain and a brisk wind sent us into the wood for shelter.

Approaching the old Wesleyan chapel

We wade into the woods for shelter

Old ruins in Hazel Head Wood

We soon came to some ruined buildings. TSB says these once belonged to High Hazel Head Farm which was last inhabited in 1946, surprisingly recent considering the state of the ruins. As we examined the ruins the rain stopped and we decided that the stone blocks of the ruin would make chairs and table for our coffee stop.

We saw three of these way marks left apparently on trust

It's stopped raining so..

.. let's have coffee

Refreshed, we followed a grassy track through the dark wood until, bearing left, we exited the wood above Hazel Head Car Park and the Osmotherley to Hawnby road. The rain had stopped and the walking was much more enjoyable.

Leaving Hazel Head Wood

Turn into Ellers Wood at sign

We followed the road left for a short time before turning right into Ellers Wood at a footpath sign. This stretch had seemed unwalked and the faint path made difficult by self-seeded saplings on our last visit here, but today the path was distinct and took us straight to a bridge over the River Rye.

Through the saplings....

.. to The Bridge over the River Rye

In full flow

We stood on the bridge for a few moments watching the river, which was in spate following the heavy rain.

After crossing the river we briefly joined a farm track before passing through a gate into a sheep field. We followed the edge of the field, alongside the river to reach a row of telegraph poles. Here we turned left to follow the poles uphill to reach a stile.

Steady climb alonside the telegraph poles

Once over the stile we followed the track into conifers. These are the trees of Blueberry Wood and we found this whole area to be full of young pheasants which ran along the path in front of us.

Eventually we emerged from the conifers above St Agnes House Farm and to a surprise view of Hawnby Hill.

Buzzard at Blueberry Wood

Walking alongside Blueberry Wood

Surprise view of Hawnby Hill

St Agnes Farm

Passing above St Agnes House Farm we crossed a stile and dropped down to a ford where we crossed a footbridge into Low Wood. Soon we came to the attractive arched bridge over the Rye, not mentioned by TSB as it post dates his book, being built to replace a bridge washed away by flooding in 2005. See here

Wet wool at St Agnes Farm

Walking alongside game bird fence

The first of three bridges

The beck here is normally a trickle!

The arched bridge over the River Rye comes into view

Looking upstream from the bridge

From the bridge we had a short scramble up to a track leading right, coming out of the woods at the lonely Carr House. From here we followed way marks (but no path) through several fields of sheep before eventually reaching the road just outside Hawnby.