Walking in North Yorkshire: Old Byland to Nettledale and Scawton

7.5 miles Warm and mainly sunny

In The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills, Tom Scott Burns describes this walk as embodying all the charm of Ryedale as it passes through the villages of Old Byland, Scawton and Cold Kirby.

We approached Old Byland from the B1257 Bilsdale road via Rievaulx village and parked in the village, at the roadside close to the green.

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

TSB relates that in 1143 the Norman Baron Roger de Mowbray granted land in Ryedale to some wandering monks from Furnace Abbey in Lancashire. They moved about the dale for a few years before finally settling on a site they called Bellalanda, or Byland.

We walked through the pretty village and saw the C12th Church of All Saints almost hidden from view behind houses in the north west corner of the village. We found that the church was open so went inside for a look around.

Houses in Old Byland

The Church is through the gate on the village green

All Saint's Church

15th Century Timbered ceiling

Saxon Font

Looking towards the rear of the church

Saxon carvings

Early Norman dragon carving

Leaving the church we walked through the village green and just as we exited the village, turned left through a gate into the woods of Low Gill.

Old Byland Hall

Turning into Low Gill

The track is little walked and is overgrown with nettles. There is a steep drop to the right and the path is narrow and slippery so care must be taken with this stretch.

Low Gill gradually descends to Ashberry Pasture, a wild-flower sanctuary maintained by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

The path is somewhat indistinct!

...but better once the floor of the valley is reached

Walking through Ashberry Pasture

I'm not sure why this is here!

Watching us pass by

Leaving the pasture we joined the Rievaulx to Old Byland road just below Ashberry Hill and followed it to a junction next to picturesque Ashberry Farm.

Ashberry Farm

We turned right over the bridge at Ashberry Farm and followed the Scawton lane past Hagg Hall. We left the lane at Bradley Bank and followed a woodland track that meanders through Nettle Dale. Three large man-made lakes were to the right and stretched along most of our track through Nettle Dale.

Hagg Hall

We join the Cleveland Way

Leaving Bradley Bank to enter Nettledale...

... and its three man made lakes

Walking through Nettledale

Just past the last lake we reached a footbridge and Cleveland Way sign on our right. We turned left here and walked uphill into Spring Wood.

Entering Spring Wood

A steep climb to the Scawton road

Passing by an Inn Way Sign

Our path climbed through Spring Wood until it reached a tarmac road which we followed into Scawton, which is Norse for farm in the hollow.

St Mary's Church, Scawton

Here we sat on a convenient bench in front of the church hall and enjoyed our coffee and scones in very pretty surroundings.

Weather-vane opposite the church

I would guess this house is called 'The Firs'

A glider is towed up as we drink our coffee

Leaving the church we returned to the village green and crossed the grass to an overgrown path behind the village telephone box. The box isn't operational and is in poor repair. A couple of years ago, being curious to discover why the box has a wooden door we googled for further information and discovered it to be an early K6 model which always had a teak wood door. It is a shame the village doesn't make arrangements for cleaning and painting the box, as other villages have done with their old telephone boxes.

Our path is to the left of the photo

.. and is as neglected as the telephone box

Eventually it leads to a sheep field

It would appear that the next section of today's walk is not being used by other walkers and the fields show no sign of tracks. There are waymarks on field boundaries and we aimed for these as we crossed several sheep fields.

Unmarked paths

... through sheep fields

Walking directly from way-mark to way-mark but our footprints are the first

Dropping down to Flassen Dale

We kept to our path by using the yellow way-marks posted on field boundaries until we descended back into Flassen Dale, which has been recently deforested.

On reaching the valley floor we saw that a clay pigeon shoot had been taking place but it appeared that the contestants had gone off for lunch.

We see 'Clays' ready for use as we drop down to Flassen Dale

Not a soul about!

Boxes of clays

We turned left onto a broad path then almost immediately right to climb up the other side of the dale.

We now crossed more fields to reach the village of Cold Kirby. In Cold Kirby, almost the first building one encounters is the Church of St Michael, which Tom Scott Burns explains was rebuilt in the 1800s. It originally dated back to the 12th century when the parish was administered by the Order of Knights Templar.

A handsome bull

Church of St Michael

Unfortunately not as accommodating as Old Byland - we can't get in!

Cold Kirby

We looked into the village briefly and then followed the Cleveland Way sign to rejoin our path for the steady descent back to Nettle Dale.

Leaving Cold Kirby

Looking back at St Michael's

Bird scarer

So this is where the shooters have got to

Al fresco dining

At Nettle Dale we parted from the Cleveland Way as we reached the lakes, turning left into a field and crossing to a gated bridge over a stream. We now had a steep climb out of Nettle Dale through Calister Wood, until we reached fields on the other side.