Roseberry Topping, Easby Moor and Captain Cook's Monument from Great Ayton
7 miles
It is three years since we did this walk and although not an official Tom Scott Burns walk, it would have been very well known to him.
We parked at Great Ayton in the High Street and walked east, eventually crossing and leaving the road at a footpath sign taking us towards Cleveland Lodge.
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| Today's route, except we turned left before Dykes Lane to walk down to Brookside Farm |
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| Not a cloud in the sky but a very low sun |
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| New sign on Captain Cook's Schoolhouse |
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| The Ayton Knitters have put on a High Street display |
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| Leave the road at the green signpost |
The path alongside Cleveland Lodge is always muddy. We hopped along it as best we could eventually following the field path to cross the Middlesbrough to Whitby railway line near to Rye Hill Farm.
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| Crossing the Whitby Line |
We walked through farm fields and to reach Cliff Rigg Quarry where whinstone was mined until 1973. We diverted from our path slightly by climbing uphill to reach the old quarry for a better look and I attempted a panorama shot with limited success.
Close to the quarry we were interested to see a new information board near to an archaeological dig that described how Captain Cook's cottage is now believed to have been on this spot.
We descended and re-joined our farm track and crossed several fields with Roseberry Topping dominating the skyline. Eventually we reaching Wilson's Folly, a shooting box on the slopes of Roseberry.
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| Wilson's Folly |
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| Plaque on Wilson's Folly |
A short steep climb now took us to the top of Roseberry where we stood by the trig point. We had fine views in the clear air, even picking out landmarks in County Durham.
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| Roseberry from Wilson's Folly |
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| A steep climb... |
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| ... brings us to the summit |
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| Old graffitti |
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| Ayton in the distance |
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| Trig Point at 320m |
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| Panorama from summit |
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| Newton under Roseberry below |
TSB recounts the story of a Northumbrian princess who had been warned by an astrologer that her son Oswy would be drowned on a certain day. To avoid this she took the child to the summit of Roseberry Topping where he would surely be safe from that fate. While she slept the child wandered off and fell down a well, situated on the north eastern slope of Roseberry, so fulfilling the prophecy, which led the princess to kill herself. Mother and child were buried together and 'Os by his mother lay' and so the village of Osmotherly gained its name.
Roseberry is believed to have been held in special regard by the Vikings who settled here and gave the area many of its place names. They gave Roseberry Topping its present name: first attested in 1119 as Othenesberg, (Othenes (personal name) rock, or Odin's rock). The name changed successively to Othensberg, Ohenseberg, Ounsberry and Ouesberry before finally settling on Roseberry, this means that Roseberry Topping is one of only a handful of known pagan names in England, being named after the Norse God Odin.See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseberry_Topping
With Roseberry behind us we headed south towards Newton Moor where we stopped beside a stone wall to sit in the sun and enjoy our coffee and scones.
Our break over we turned south and headed for Easby Moor and Captain Cook's Monument. The path leads down to Gribdale Gate where we usually stop for coffee, but with the valley in shade and feeling bitterly cold, we were glad we had stopped earlier in the sun.
From Gribdale we climbed up towards the monument, stopping briefly to look at a memorial plaque to a British air crew, killed here during WW2. There had obviously been a Remembrance Day visit to the spot, judging by the poppies. Nice that they are still being remembered.
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| "Go towards the light..." |
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| Gribdale below |
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| WWII memorial |
We soon reached Captain Cook's Monument and paused nearby to look at another memorial, this time a 'pop-up' memorial to someone's Aunty Aime.
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| Walkers at Captain Cook's Monument |
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| Roseberry from Captain Cook's Monument |
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| A photgrapher sets up his kit |
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| Great Ayton below |
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| Another memorial |
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| .. to Auntie Amie |
We left the monument and crossing Easby Moor began the steep descent through Ayton Banks Wood. This is always slippery and care is needed. As we descended we met another hiker at the half way point obviously ascending as he was sitting to rest. He told us that he should have been out metal detecting today but his friend had cried off so he had decided to hike instead. In reply to our questions he told us his favourite place for detecting was Osmotherley and on his last visit he had discovered a King James shilling dated 1605, with an Irish harp on the back and in excellent condition, which will be worth a few hundred pounds. He said that it was great to make such a find but mostly he was digging up shotgun cartridges!
We said cheerio to the detectorist and continued downhill to emerge from the woods to a fine view down to Great Ayton.
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| Bear left at the sign towards Ayton Banks Wood |
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| A long steep descent |
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| The detectorist |
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| We emerge to a fine view |
As we reached Dykes Lane we made a decision to stray from our map as we did not want to walk back through the mud we had experienced on our outward journey, near Cleveland Lodge. We turned left just before Dykes Lane into a farm track where there was a Weak Bridge sign, and this led us, via the weak railway bridge, to Brookside Farm. The farm now hosts a popular cafe called Fletcher's, which was busy with late lunch guests as we passed.
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| Turn left at this sign to reach... |
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| ... Brookside Farm and Fletchers Cafe |
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| Hunting weather vane at Brookside Farm |
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| A string of porkers at Brookside Farm |
After passing the farm we joined the tarmac lane from Little Ayton and walked into Great Ayton where we paused to admire the sun dial at the Royal Oak.
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Admiring the sun dial...
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| 'Deus adest laborantibus' - 1771 - 'God favours the diligent' |
The Royal Oak is a Grade II listed building and its old sun dial is in excellent condition, and we noticed the time (being shortly after 2pm,) was nearly correct. The Sun Dial Society-Royal Oak
We popped inside and enjoyed a pint while discussing today's excellent walk.
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| "To the diligent!" |
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