Exploring Scugdale from Carlton Bank

7 miles           Drizzle, fine later

We drove up the steep hill on Alum House Lane, the Carlton to Chop Gate road, and parked at Lord Stones Cafe where parking is permitted during cafe hours.

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

Leaving the car park we walked back along the Carlton road for a few yards until we reached a Cleveland Way sign. Here we turned left off the road and almost immediately turned right again off the Cleveland Way to follow the wide access road for the old Gliding Club (now demolished) steadily uphill.

Turn on to the Cleveland Way path

Follow the old Gliding Club access road

... steadily uphill

Reaching the top of the access road we left it by turning left into a narrow track across the heather.  There was a wooden footpath sign here last time we walked but no longer. The first feature one comes to on this path is the rocky outcrop of Stone Ruck.

Bear left here, Clive remarks that the sign is missing

Follow the path through bracken..

.. and then heather

.. to pass Stone Ruck

Tom Scott Burns explains that Ruck is derived from the Old Norse bruga meaning to pile or heap up, as in a cairn.  

We followed the path for a mile or so across the moor into drizzle and a headwind until we came to Brian's Pond and once again pondered on its unusual name. Did Brian drown there or did he once own it?  The name's origin seems to be lost in time and my previous efforts with books and Google have come to nought.

Brian's Pond

Now apparently popular with wild swimmers, not today though

Leaving Brian's Pond we climbed steadily over Clough Gill Top, where a signpost indicates a choice of routes. We took the right fork that ascends steadily to the moor rim where we suddenly came upon the valley of Scugdale.   To one's right are the rocks of Barker's Crags and below are the buildings of Scugdale Hall.  

Bear right at Clough Gill Top

Scugdale Head comes into view

We saw no grouse today and remarked how few we've seen this year

The top of Barker's Crags 

A lovely view into Scugdale

TSB refers to Scugdale as 'the sheltered dale' from the Danish skygger - to overshadow.  

We went through a new metal gate and descended across a couple of fields to reach the dale road where we turned left to walk towards the top of the valley and High House.  

Descending into Scugdale

Jet mine workings opposite almost hidden by bracken

As we walked towards High House we looked across the dale at the remains of jet mine workings. After jet jewellery became fashionable in Victorian times Bilsdale, Raisdale and Scugdale were heavily mined.  Mining was a simple affair, the miners tunnelled into the hillside and the shale was brought out and examined for jet.  The spoil was then tipped down the hillside leaving the long piles of rubble seen above.  An interesting article here provides more information about mining in the area.

We reached High House which has a very neglected air about it. We noticed that the out buildings have deteriorated rapidly since our last visit.

High House

Big deterioration since our last visit

The old bridge, no longer over troubled waters

TSB records that in this old farmhouse lived Harry Cooper who was reputed to be the tallest man in the world, standing at 8'6".  He left Scugdale to join Barnum's Circus in America and died in 1898 at the age of 41.

Just beyond the house we turned right off the lane into fields at a dilapidated stile.  This part of the walk appears untrodden but there are guiding way-marks at field boundaries and we descended to reach then cross Scugdale Beck 

After crossing the beck we climbed up to join a faint path that took us down the valley, walking under the old jet and alum workings. When we reached some grassy banks just before Holiday House we stopped for coffee and scones out of the wind.  The drizzle stopped at this point, and we enjoyed our break looking across at Scugdale Hall.

Approaching Holiday House

Scugdale Hall

After our break we walked past the strangely named Holiday House which was shown on 1940's maps as such. It seems an unusual name for the region and we would like to know why it is so called.

The footpath alongside Holiday House appears unwalked

Holiday House

Leaving Holiday House we followed its long access track to the dale road, where we turned left and continued to reach the farm buildings of Fog Close. There is a shortage of way-marks here so one must follow the map. We turned right into the farm's track and then turned right again before reaching the farm buildings, before turning left and walking up the side of the farm towards Live Moor.  Here there is a waymark on the gate.

Pheasants are being reared here and have recently been released into the wild

No footpath signs

The main gate is chained and locked and Clive forces his way through the briars

Still no waymarks but the footpath is through the gate

The buildings of Fog Close Farm

As we leave the farm buildings we finally spot a waymark

The next half mile turned out to be difficult to walk at this time of year because of high bracken covering the narrow paths. No-one appears to have been along this way before us and we had to fight our way through, gradually climbing back out of Scugdale alongside the charmingly named Snotterdale and eventually back onto Live Moor.

Follow the tree line as we climb out of Fog Close Farm

Oh 'Eck! Our track disappears into bracken on the other side of the gate

Half a mile of this before we emerge onto Live Moor

 

How the path normally looks at the same spot

Reaching Live Moor we continued to follow the path through bracken along the ridge while looking down into the charmingly named and little known valley of Snotterdale, to which there is no road or path access. 

Snotterdale

Opposite a conifer plantation our path finally left the bracken,  turning left across Carlton Moor where we were soon walking on the old gliding station runway before crossing to join the Coast to Coast and Cleveland Way walks, which follow the ridge with spectacular views all the way to a trig point at 1338 feet.

Turn left at the gate into the forestry plantation

... and leave the bracken to climb on to Live Moor

Looking back to Scugdale

A stiff breeze filled the air with heather pollen 

This was once the glider runway

Whorl Hill and Potto from Carlton Moor

We follow the Cleveland Way along the ridge

Carlton below

Trig Point at 1338', Roseberry Topping in the distance

From the trig point we descended steeply to return to Lords Stone car park and the end of our walk.  A short drive back down Alum House Lane took us to Carlton Village and the Blackwell Ox.  This is a good walk and much recommended, especially outside of bracken season.

'To Brian - and his Pond!'

 

Hidden Scugdale

10.9 miles                                                              Mostly fine

Although this is not a Tom Scott Burns walk its originator, Harry Whitehouse, in his book called "North Yorkshire Coast and Moors, The Classic Walks" freely admits it was inspired by and developed from one of Tom Scott Burns' walks in The Walker's Guide to the Cleveland Hills.  The walk provides a thorough circumnavigation of Scugdale.

Today's walk from "North Yorkshire Coast and Moors" by Harry Whitehouse

We parked in Swainby on the road near to The Blacksmith's Arms and walked straight up Swainby High Street until the road splits into Coalmire Road to the right and the dead end Scugdale Road to the left.

We turned left into Scugdale Road and just past the access to Mill Farm we crossed a stile to the right.

Flowering garlic in Swainby

Approaching Scugdale Road

Over the stile..

.. and walk towards Mill Farm

We crossed the field to another stile and passed the farm, pausing to admire their peacocks and guinea fowl.  Another stile and field led to the corner of Millfield House.  Here we turned sharp right on reaching the buildings and walked across the field to reach another stile in a fence which we crossed before descending some steps to a bridge over Scugdale Beck. 

"They're not all mine!"

Peacocks at Mill Farm

From Millfield House walk straight over the field...

.. to reach a stile and steps down to the beck

There was a beautiful display of bluebells in Clain Wood and the photographs hardly do justice to them.

Clive checks that they are the English variety of bluebells - they are!

As we get near the beck the bluebells give way to garlic

After crossing the beck we climbed up to reach the remains of  a dismantled railway. In the mid 19th century a railway served Ailesbury Ironstone Mine in Scugdale which was situated at Huthwaite Green.  A tramway carried the ore from Huthwaite Green to large calcining kilns and we had heard that the remains of these kilns are still to be seen.  We decided to go in search of them and left our route for a while.  We turned onto the old railway bed and followed it for some way alongside the beck until we reached the kilns.  They were an impressive size but vegetation made it difficult to get nearer for a closer inspection.

We follow the old track bed

 

We have to cross the beck

Interesting but an online search has failed to find a record of this book

One of the calcining kilns, the oven bricks to the left

The ovens ceased work around 1890 when cheaper imports closed the mine

Beech tree roots

Millions of bluebells

We returned to our trail and climbed up to join the Cleveland Way which we followed until it turns towards Huthwaite Green, but here we carried straight on.  We now crossed several fields before reaching Harfa Bank Farm.

Follow the faint track and waymarks

Impressive Harfa Bank Farm

At Harfa Bank Farm we turned left and continued through fields to eventually turn right onto Scugdale Road, leaving it after a few hundred yards to enter the farm track for Holiday House.

Here we stopped to sit in the sun and ejoy our coffee, looking across at Scugdale Hall.

Lots of wild geese in Scugdale's fields

Crow totems near game bird's feeding bins

We see climbers on Barker's Ridge opposite

Holiday House

Scugdale Hall from Holiday House

Coffee time

Leaving Holiday House we descended through fields to cross the beck near to the landlocked bridge and then made the climb to High House.

Descend through fields

... to reach Scugdale Beck

First cross the bridge then cross the beck

Climbing to High House

High House

We then followed the broad track from High House to reach the end of Scugdale Road, which we then followed to Scugdale Hall.  Just before the buildings we came face to face with several cows and their calves.  They seemed unhappy to be so near to us so we moved into the adjacent field to pass them by, thus saving face both for them and ourselves.

Looking down Scugdale from High House

Following the Dale road 

Confrontation

Evasion

We return to the road once we're past

Passing Scugdale Hall we followed the lane down dale to Raikes Farm.  Here we leave the lane for a while, cutting across fields before rejoining it and passing Sparrow Hall and Sunny Side House, to reach the Cleveland Way once more. Eventually the Cleveland Way enters woods through a gate to the right but this is where we leave it by a gate to the left.

Scugdale Hall

Holiday House from Scugdale Hall

Raikes Farm

Leave the lane at Raikes Farm

.. and follow way-marks

.. down hill and down dale

... before rejoining the lane once more

Sparrow Hall

Rejoin the Cleveland Way

We followed a fence then reached the permanently muddy entrance to Faceby Plantation.  The mud here was deeper than our boots and took a bit of negotiating using branches to cross and eventually by climbing the fence next to the gate.

The Cleveland Way near Huthwaite Green

Turn left through the gate and off the Cleveland Way

Heading towards Whorl Hill

We kept to the left path in Faceby Plantation, eventually leaving through a gate and crossing a field to Bank Lane, where we turned left to walk down to a stile next to a building on the left.

Here we crossed into Whorl Hill and once again were astonished at another fine display of bluebells.  

Bank Lane

Leave Bank Lane at the stile

Whorl Hill

Leaving Whorl Hill

At the bottom of Whorl Hill we left by a gate at Whorl Hill Farm and followed the signpost to Whorlton, we walked along field boundaries to reach the road.

We passed the old Church of the Holy Cross and Whorlton Castle both of which we have visited and looked round quite recently, and followed the road back to Swainby where we were delighted to find the Black Horse open for business.

Texel Ram at Whorlton

Church of Holy Cross

Walkers pass by Whorlton Castle

Old gate in Swainby made mainly from traps, note black rats at handle height

Yon door is open!

To Hidden Scugdale!

This is quite a long walk but full of interest and highly recommended.