Old Byland to Nettledale and Scawton

8 miles Fine and cool

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.

Carole is walking with me this week as Clive is away. We approached Old Byland from the B1257 Bilsdale road via Rievaulx village and parked 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 Church of All Saints almost hidden from view behind houses in the north- west corner of the village. The church was unlocked so we went inside for a look around.

House opposite our parking place

All Saints Church, Old Byland

Norman Dragons on the porch

Saxon Font

Looking back from the altar

St Aelred's Trail sign on church gate

The church dates to the 12th century and is little changed. It looks very much as it would have been at that time. On the porch walls are a pair of early Norman winged dragons.

Leaving the church we walked through the village green which is dominated by huge sycamore trees, and just as we exited Old Byland we turned left through a gate into the woods of Low Gill. The track here used to be very overgrown and slippery with a dangerous drop of 100' or so to the right, but in the years since our last visit a new 41 mile walk, St Aelred's Trail, has been devised linking the churches in several local parishes that Aelred would have been familiar with. Expecting more people to be walking these paths has resulted in an upgrade to the path through Low Gill and it has been much improved.

Old Byland

Old Byland Hall

Leave the road by the gate

Much improved path

... drops us down to Ashberry Pasture

We dropped down to Ashberry Pasture where the path disappeared and we walked through the pasture, which is a wild flower sanctuary maintained by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. This is a lovely valley to walk through, almost 2 miles without any road or buildings.

A very peaceful 2 miles

A hare spots us and takes off before I can photograph him

Speckled Wood butterfly

The cool weather has kept bluebells flowering

Wild primrose

Flowering garlic

Dead Ash trees

Eventually we emerged from the pasture onto the Rievaulx to Old Byland road just below Ashberry Hill which we followed to a junction next to picturesque Ashberry Farm.

Ashberry Farm needs a new coat of whitewash

Pond at Ashberry Farm

We join Scawton Lane

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

Wood Avens are prolific here

Field marigolds, we think

Hagg Hall Farm

Turn off the Scawton road into Nettledale

Walking past the three Nettledale lakes

Just past the third lake we reached a footbridge and another Cleveland Way sign to the right. We turned left here and, leaving the Cleveland Way at a gate, we walked uphill into Spring Wood where a steady half mile climb took us to tarmac and the road into Scawton.

Go through the gate, now marked with a St Aelred's Trail sign

A steady climb alongside the trees of Spring Wood

We pass an Inn Way sign at the top of the climb

Reaching the road we saw an old Inn Way sign, reminding us that we are now also following the five day 'Inn Way to North Yorks.' This is a fabulous trek, sadly now little walked, and brings back many happy memories for us. I would heartily recommend the Inn Way to any keen walker who loves North Yorkshire and has five or six days to spare.

We followed the tarmac road into Scawton where we sat on a bench by the village green and had our coffee and scones, after which we decided to look around St Mary's Church which is almost opposite. The church was unlocked and open to visitors.

St Mary's Church, Scawton

Norman lavatorium, possibly brought from Rievaulx

Looking towards the altar

Norman Carvings

War memorial to a Free French aircrew

The church was built by the Cistercians of Byland Abbey, 'owing to the divers perils and fatigue which the parishioners underwent in coming from Scawton to Byland.'

Church House opposite St Mary's

.... and its novel weather vane

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 I 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 hasn't made arrangements for cleaning and painting the box as has happened elsewhere.

Carole admires the fine copper beech tree on the village green

... and is obviously very impressed with my knowledge of the K6 telephone box

It would appear that the next section of today's walk is not much used by other walkers and the fields show no sign of tracks. There are yellow waymarks (now often coupled with a blue St Aelred's Trail sign) on field boundaries and we aimed for these as we crossed several sheep fields.

Eventually we descended back into Flassen Dale and on reaching the valley bottom we turned left onto a broad path then almost immediately right to climb steeply up the other side of the dale.

Sheep at Pond Farm watch us with interest as we pass by

Look for way marks on fences and gateposts

Our path goes through a field of rape

No, not a strange fungus but clay pigeons

Descending to Flassen Dale

Look for the sign and a small path straight up

Leaving Flassen Dale we crossed more fields to reach the village of Cold Kirby and its church of St Michael, which TSB says was originally built in the 12th century, but was rebuilt in the 1800s. We were saddened to find a notice proclaiming that the church was now closed and access no longer allowed. St Aelred's Trail has only been open a couple of years and one of its 9 churches is already closed!