Walking in North Yorkshire: "Ana Cross"

Hutton-le-Hole to Lastingham and Ana Cross

8.5 miles Cool northerly wind but dry

We decided to go 'off piste' today and do a new walk and one that isn't from a Tom Scott Burns book. Variety is the spice of life and we thought it would be nice to have a change of area.

My GPS track of today's walk

We parked in the Crown Pub car park at Hutton-le-Hole for a small fee that was less than the National Trust car park nearby. There is no free parking in the village between March and October. After putting on our boots we walked through the picturesque village and immediately after crossing a stream we turned left at a footpath sign opposite Fir Tree Cottage.

We parked behind the pub

Clive munches his apple while admiring an old Fordson tractor

Views of Hutton-le-Hole

We turn off the road into a field path

We passed through a couple of narrow stiles then climbed sharply uphill, through a gate and along a field looking down on Hutton-le-Hole, which was partly hidden by trees. We followed our way-marked path until we arrived at Grange Farm, which we thought to be a windy, exposed spot in today's weather.

This type of stile can be a struggle for the larger man!

Nice field path

Cattle at Grange Farm

Barn cattle at Grange Farm

We walked through Grange Farm and joined a tarmac lane which led through the hamlet of Spaunton. Once through the village, just past a road junction, we turned left at a footpath sign into a sunken path.

Spaunton

Weather-vane at Spaunton

Clive checks the map before entering the 'hollow lane'


Sunken path to Lastingham

We followed the sunken path, or hollow lane as they are called in North Yorkshire, as it descended to Lastingham. We walked through the village and briefly left our route to look at the church of St Mary's, opposite the Blacksmiths Arms.

We enter Lastingham

St Mary's Church.....

..... opposite the Blacksmith's Arms

Stylised weather-vane near the church


Houses at Lastingham

St Mary's Church was open and we entered to have a look around. A notice explained that it has an early Norman crypt constructed in1078, unique in English churches, and we descended the stairs to explore it. The crypt was constructed as the original intention had been to build an abbey here, on the site of a 7th century monastery.

1701 Here lieth the body of Ann Burton

Looking towards the altar

The crypt

Part of a Saxon cross

The original top of Ana Cross (see below)

Clive soaks up the atmosphere

We enjoyed poking about in the old church, all the more so as we had the place to ourselves. We went up into the main church and walked round admiring the stained glass windows before exiting and making our way back to our route, passing an interesting ancient well on the way.

St Mary's Church

Hear (sic) lies the body of John Burton Interd (interred) Decembr 1st 1755

St Cedd's well

We turned left at a road junction and left the village, our tarmac road became a track and then entered the open moor.

Leaving Lastingham, we walk up to the open moor

Looking back from the moor to St Mary's Church

Our walk now became a trudge across the open moor, the only thing of interest being the masses of flowering heather which gave off a strong smell of pollen in the brisk north wind. After a couple of miles we could make out the Ana Cross standing above the horizon, and turned left at a fork to reach it. The cross was rebuilt in the last century and we had seen parts of the original in St Mary's Church crypt. At 12 feet it's the highest cross on the moors but the original was believed to be twice that height.

The Ana Cross

At 12' the Ana Cross is the highest on the North York Moors

We leave our coffee spot to return to the cross and our path

The plinth of the Ana Cross would have made an ideal seat for a refreshment stop but the biting wind made us look for shelter. Nearby we found a gully where walkers in similar circumstances had obviously dragged a couple of flat stones for seats and we hunkered down to enjoy our scones and coffee out of the wind.

Returning to our path we headed further north until we reached the Rosedale road and Chimney Bank. Our path turned left here but we decided to walk to the right to get a view down into Rosedale.

Rosedale appears in the distance

We leave our route to walk towards Rosedale's bank top

Rosedale

Sign at Bank Top

The ruins of the iron ore kilns

Walking towards the kilns

After admiring the view of Rosedale and the remains of the iron ore kilns we returned to our route and walked along the tarmac road for half a mile. At a green metal footpath sign we turned right off the road and followed a moor track for about three and a half miles, as before, the beautiful sight and smell of the heather stopped this from being a route march.

Our path across the moor

We noticed what appeared to be a wooden box about 20 yards from the track and went over to find an unusual trap. It had a small circular entrance that would only allow a rat, weasel or stoat sized animal to enter to get the bait and on opening the top we could see a small gin trap and the remains of some poor creature. Obviously the remains were old and we wondered why such a fancy trap had been abandoned by its owner.