Day 5
Rosedale to Hawnby
16 miles
We had an 8am breakfast at Sevenford House as we knew we were in for a long hard day on the hills. As well as being a long walk there is around 3000 feet of ascent involved to cross Rosedale, Farndale, Bransdale, Bilsdale and Ryedale to reach Hawnby.
Route-finding today was particularly difficult because of unused and overgrown paths and we would not like to have attempted the walk without GPS. This particularly applies to the long crossing of Bilsdale East Moor where the paths, only a boot width wide and described as indistinct in the text, have disappeared in thick heather.
Leaving Rosedale brought its own problems as we negotiated our way through dense vegetation on Thorgill Bank and nearly an hour had passed before we reached Sheriff's Pit on Blakey Ridge.
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| Leaving Sevenford House |
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| Turning off the road |
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| Approaching Thorgill Bank |
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| We are finally through the vegetation and reaching the moor |
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| Paths are narrow.. |
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| .. but at least they are still visible |
Our next stop was Church Houses where we arrived at 11.50am and seeing the pub was opening at 12 noon, we decided on a short rest stop. The licensee was happy to provide us with coffee and fresh water for our flasks and we left the Feversham Arms much refreshed.
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| Golden Plover |
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| Stoat trap |
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| Farndale |
Leaving Church Houses we crossed the River Dove and climbed steeply on rough tracks passing some spoil heaps and finally reaching the top of the moor.
Here we joined a broad track known as Rudland Rigg which we followed for a couple of miles before dropping down into Bransdale to reach the old mill buildings. We passed by the mill where some youngsters were enjoying a barbecue, reluctantly turning down their offer of bottles of beer as we still had many miles to walk. We crossed the stone bridge over Hodge Beck and sat by the old sundial to drink coffee from our flasks.
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| Leaving Church Houses |
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| Rudland Rigg |
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| Bransdale Mill |
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| Let's stop for coffee! |
A steep tarmac road led us up and out of Bransdale to the top of Bransdale Ridge where we joined a narrow moor path.
We now followed very overgrown and meandering paths, relying mainly on our GPS track, over Bilsdale East Moor. This walk might be easier earlier in the year before the heather and bracken had grown over the path.
Eventually we dropped down to the Sun Inn and the B1257 road.
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| Boundary stones on Bransdale Ridge |
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| Bilsdale East Moor |
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| Spout House Plantation |
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| The Sun, closed until further notice |
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| Leave the B1257 at this bridleway |
We now were on familiar ground and followed the footpaths of Bilsdale valley to Easterside Hill, which we passed to our left before reaching the road and walking up to Hawnby. Here we sat outside our accommodation, The Owl at Hawnby, and enjoyed a couple of pints of well earned beer.
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