Captain Cook Country from Great Ayton

8 miles                            Fine and dry

We  parked on Great Ayton High Street near to Suggitt's Cafe and crossed the River Leven by the steel bridge opposite the cafe.  There is a sign next to the bridge explaining its origins shortly after WWI.

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

Ayton High Street

Happy childhood memories - Suggitt's Ices

One of three pissoirs in Great Ayton

We paused briefly to admire the old 'pissoir' which has been located near the bridge as a non-operational feature and painted red for some reason, then moved on to read the information board next to the waterfall.

This board told us about the flood of 1840, which caused much damage and destroyed the Fulling Mill at Kildale.  We resolved to find the site of the old mill later during today's walk.

Details of the 1840 flood

The waterfall in Waterfall Park

Clive passes the old sluice gate

Tom Scott Burns says in his walker's guide that Great Ayton was known as Canny Yatton in the local dialect and was once the haunt of Au'd Nanny, a notorious witch described in Blakeborough's verse, T' Hunt of Yatton Bridge:

Her naals they were lang an' humped war her back

And baith lugs war pointed, her skin ommaist black..

Leaving Waterfall Park behind we followed field paths along the River Leven, towards Woodhouse Farm.

Good job Clive is wearing his seven-league boots in today's muddy conditions

"They look placid.."

"We are!"

Hidden gate at Cross Lane

Woodhouse Farm

Farm history - Built 1712 - Rebuilt 1905 - Modernised 1962

After Woodhouse Farm we crossed a horse field whose inhabitants had no interest in us whatsoever, thank goodness.  A couple more fields led us to a bridge over the river to reach Easby Lane.  After walking through the village we stayed on the tarmac road for half a mile before crossing a way-marked stile into fields just before Borough Green Farm where we began a steady climb to Easby Moor.

The river by Woodhouse Farm

Friendly horse at Woodhouse Farm

Texel Tups at Woodhouse Farm

Cross the bridge...

... into Easby

Huntsman weather vane at Easby Mill

Pretend jockey at Easby Mill

Walking up Easby Lane

Captain Cook's Monument appears on the horizon

Reaching the Moor Gate we turned right to follow our path below the moor to Mill Bank Wood.   Here we turned right again onto a permitted path, to descend to the river and the remains of the old mill.  TSB says that the wood is actually 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, and was still 6 feet high as it rushed through Great Ayton.  

Reaching the river we saw the ruined foundations of the mill to our right, just off the concessionary path.

Climbing to Easby Moor

Note the date on the moor gate - '1668 JW'

Easby Hall far below

Turn right after the moor gate and follow the track..

Quiet cattle next to our track

High-Tech cattle, note the bracelets 

Our track carries on through the stone gateposts, but we turn right...

... on the permitted path

... which we descend to the river

... and the Fulling Mill's ruins

Leaving the ruins of the mill we followed the river along the concessionary path.  On a bend in the track we saw a stone memorial inscribed 'Black Pepper'.  TSB tells us this this marks the burial place of the favourite pony of Cecily Turton from Kildale Hall.  Poor Cecily died in the 'flu epridemic of 1919 aged 20.  We decided the horse must have dropped dead at this spot, as it would have been very difficult to bring it here for burial.

Rare plant - Clubmoss at Kildale

Boarding to get near to Clubmoss

Black Pepper - see text

Continuing along the riverside path we passed by Kildale Force, a waterfall occasionally visited by my family when our children were young, but now fenced off to the public.

Kildale Force

The waterfall is no longer open to the public

Pathside bluebells are past their best

We came out of the woods below Bankside Farm where stones and logs positioned to deter motorists from parking made ideal seats for our coffee stop.

Those logs will make a good seat for our coffee break

Bankside Farm

Happy families at Bankside Farm

After coffee we followed the farm road uphill from Bankside Farm until coming to a fork where we turned left to walk through the trees of Coate Moor.  A gentle climb led us to Captain Cook's Monument.

Snug as a bug in a rug

Hives at Bankside Farm

Busy Bees

Kildale Church from Bankside

Following the Cleveland Way...

.... to Captain Cook's Monument

 

No longer a very PC message - the plaque on the Monument

From 'Round and About the NY Moors' by TSB, note the door!

TSB notes that the 51' monument was built in 1827, the foundation stone being laid by Robert Campion of Whitby.  The above photo was taken during its restoration in 1895.  TSB relates how on Saturday 9th July 1960, the structure was hit by lightning and split from top to bottom, and I can remember walking with my father to view the damaged monument shortly afterwards. Presumably the next restoration, to repair this damage, also bricked up the doorway seen in the above photo.

Walking down from the monument we passed the remains of old workings that mark the site of Ayton Ironstone mines, worked by Pease and Partners from 1909 to 1928.  

We took care on slippery paths as we descended through the trees and followed the track to pass some white cottages on the Gribdale Gate road, Dikes Lane. 

Walking towards Ayton Banks Wood

Gribdale Terrace to the right

White cottages on Dikes Lane

A steep climb followed, up the tarmac track to Aireyholme Farm where there is a fine view over to Roseberry.

Aireyholme Farm is famous for being the workplace of Captain Cook's father, who was bailiff there in 1736.  It was also a place where I could purchase free range eggs but my intentions were thwarted.

At Aireyholme Farm

Clive passes by the farmhouse

Oh no! No omelette for tea tonight...

Our path now took us through two farm gates to Aireyholme Cottage where we turned sharp left.  This track took us below Cliff Rigg Quarry, where whinstone was mined.  This hard reddish stone is the remains of a volcanic explosion on the west coast of Scotland about 58 million years ago, and is the only such stone on the Yorkshire moors. 

Descending from the quarry we crossed the railway line once more before following the path towards Cleveland Lodge.  Here we met the local farmer who was spreading dolomite on to the very muddy track in an effort, he said, to stop people breaking pieces of fence "to stand on in their trainers" where the path was muddiest. He was a character and we had a chin-wag with him for a few minutes before walking on through the mud to reach Great Ayton.

Dropping down to the railway

Magnificent Undercliffe Hall over to our left

Dolomite for our track

Our boots were now filthy and therefore necessitated a return to the car for a change of footwear before we could enter the Royal Oak beer garden to discuss today's walk over a welcome pint of ale.

To Black Pepper!