Caydale and Noddle End from Murton

7.5 miles                           Fine and breezy

Clive is away and Carole agreed to join me for this enjoyable Tom Scott Burns route which we haven't walked for a couple of years.

We turned off the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley road at Laskill.  Parking, shown by the 'P' next to the Grange in TSB's map below, is no longer available to the public, so we parked on the grass verge near to the buildings of Murton Grange at the top of Murton Bank.

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

Tom Scott Burns explains that a 'grange' was a farmhouse attached to a religious order and Murton Grange once belonged to the monks of nearby Byland Abbey. 

From Murton Bank we turned into the Grange's farm track and walked past the Grange, continuing straight ahead until arriving at a fork.  This is the main lane going on to Caydale Mill but here we took the right fork down into the hidden valley of Caydale.  Tom Scott Burns tells us that the last wild cat in England was shot at this spot in 1840, by a Charles Harrison. 

From our car at the top of Murton Bank

Murton Grange

Straight past the Grange..

.. until the fork. Bear right.

After crossing a couple of fields our path dropped down into the trees of the charming valley of Caydale.  We stayed on the farm track, ignoring a couple of footpath signs, until we saw a sign with a gate on our left, and here we turned through the gate.

Stay on the main track..

.. until you see the gate on your left

Caydale

We reached the bottom of the valley and crossed several streams of crystal clear water, known as 'rills'.  These are shown on the map above as Old Byland's Water Race and Limperdale Gill.  In the 1740s a Joseph Ford of Kirbymoorside perfected a system of tapping into springs and channeling water in open 'rills' some 12 inches wide.  Water was diverted by this method through Caydale from King Spring to the village of Old Byland and the straight rills remain. 

Bridge over a 'rill' in Caydale

We crossed the valley floor and started up the other side.  Until a couple of years ago this climb passed through trees but now the trees have been felled and the area converted to rough grazing.

A consequence of this clearing has been the removal of the old 'Captain's Seat' which is shown on the map above, and which we used to pass by, although even then it was in a dilapidated state. We would like to know who the Captain was and why he would sit at such a remote spot.

Leaving the climb and Caydale we crossed several fields to reach High Leir Lane where we turned right and walked on tarmac to pass Weathercote Farm with its novel 'cat and rat' weather vane.

Climbing out of Caydale

Looking across Caydale the buildings of Murton Grange can just be seen

Field paths..

.. to reach High Leir Lane

Weathercote Farm

Cat and rat weather vane

Tractor...

.. and harvester, the gate is open which spoils the effect

After a mile we reached the junction with Cleveland Road which we crossed to follow field paths again, until reaching the high ridge of Boltby Scar. 

Straight across Cleveland Road into a narrow path

.. which opens out

.. to reach the gate above Boltby Scar

We now join the Cleveland Way

Boltby below

We turned right onto the Cleveland Way and followed the path along the ridge to pass the ruined High Barn. We passed old quarry workings and then crossed Sneck Yate Bank Road and continued along a forest path to reach High Paradise Farm. 

On the Cleveland Way and approaching..

.. High Barn

Continue past the barn

.. and into Boltby Forest

High Paradise Farm has a nice little cafe which is open during the summer months so we decided to stop for a coffee.

A scone at High Paradise

Bijou cafe at High Paradise Farm

Refreshed, we left the cafe and rejoined our path, following it to reach the old drove road, Hambleton Road.  We crossed straight over the road to enter Daletown Common where we followed a path all the way to a ruined barn at Noddle End.

Cross straight over Hambleton Road and go through the gate

.. onto Daletown Common

Daletown Common

Barley seems to be doing well, even exposed and at a height

Approaching Noddle End

Reaching the barn at Noddle End we had a fine view down into Gowerdale, before making the steep descent to reach lonely Gowerdale House.

Starting to descend into Gowerdale

Approaching Gowerdale House

Carole gets warm, Gowerdale is sheltered from the wind

'Look around and get out'

In his 'Round and About the North Yorkshire Moors, Vol. 2' Tom Scott Burns tells us that Gowerdale House is all that remains of a medieval village, called Dal in the Domesday Book, and Daile a century later. By 1433 there were 23 tenants recorded as living in Daletown but by 1569 in Humberston's Survey the entry was 'vocatum Dale Town'. Was the village wiped out by the Black Death?

We passed the front of the house which has the bleak message, "Look around and get out!" painted on the front door, and then followed a rising path to reach Dale Town Farm.

Dale Town Farm

The footpath passes between the farm buildings

We turned right into a cow field just after passing the farm buildings and followed the faint path steeply uphill to the top of Peak Scar Top where we turned left to reach Murton Bank Road and the car.

This walk ends with a steep climb to the skyline

Looking back to Dale Town Farm

Tree-hugger.  We make it to the top

Come on slowcoach! The end of the walk

Reaching the car we looked down to the village of Hawnby and its pub, The Owl, where we were soon to be found enjoying a pint and discussing today's walk.

The real end of the walk

To Dale Town

 

Rievaulx Abbey and Caydale from Murton

9.7 miles                      Fine and dry

Leaving the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley Road at the Hawnby turn off we parked by the roadside near to the buildings of Murton Grange, overlooking the village of Hawnby below.

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

Murton Grange

Tom Scott Burns explains in his 'Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills' that the township of Murton was given to Byland Abbey by Hugh Malebisse in the 12th century.  A grange was constructed by lay brothers and was basically a well organised farm with a small chapel.

Just past the Grange we turned into Ox Pasture Lane to walk along a muddy track alongside Deep Gill Wood.  We followed this lane for nearly two miles, eventually leaving the woods at a farm gate and crossing fields to an old barn.

Mole traps left on the gate at Ox Pasture Lane

Clive demonstrates how they work

Turning in to Ox Pasture Lane

Deep Gill Wood

Partridges lead us through the wood

Follow the track for two miles

We pass cattle en route to...

... the Old Barn

It's had some repairs to keep out the weather since we saw it last

We passed to the left of the barn then through a gate to descend to Barnclose Farm, where the path goes through the farm yard before turning right onto the farm track. 

Bear right through the gate..

... and descend to Barnclose Farm

Leaving Barnclose Farm we had a steady climb on tarmac to reach Tylas Farm, today almost hidden from view by foliage, and which TSB tells us was built by the monks of Old Byland as a grange and tile house, hence its name.  

We passed Tylas Farm and continued along the tarmac lane to Oxendale until reaching a gate on our left, where we turned off the road to gradually descend to the River Rye.

Through the gate

.. and into Oxendale

Boardwalk alongside the River Rye

The path now leads through the valley of Oxendale, the River Rye on the left.  We followed a pleasant grassy track until we reached the river and our path became a boardwalk over areas that obviously suffer from flooding.

We emerged onto tarmac and almost immediately crossed the river at Bow Bridge, originally built by the Cistercian monks of Rievaulx.  A short walk on the road brought us to a sign pointing to our path across fields to Rievaulx Abbey.  We left the road at a wooden Inn Way sign and soon the Abbey came into sight.

Bow Bridge

Turn off road at Inn Way sign

Also now sporting the new blue St Aelred's Way sign

Remains of the canal built by monks

Rievaulx Abbey comes into view

Our route across the fields follows the traces of the old canal built by monks in the 11th century to carry stone for the Abbey from the nearby Penny Piece Quarry, so named because quarrymen were apparently paid a penny a day.  The river was dammed here and water diverted into the canal. 

As we walked through fields towards the abbey we were rewarded with a fine view of the ruins.  Tom Scott Burns says that Rievaulx Abbey is undoubtedly a place to walk to, rather than from.  He explains the name Rievaulx is from old French for Valley of the Rye.  Under its third abbot, Aelred (to whom the walk signposted earlier refers), the monastery had 640 men dependent on its Cistercian order.

We approach the Abbey ruins

Coffee break

We walked uphill through the village and stopped at a public bench to refresh ourselves with coffee and scones, before resuming the climb to reach the Slipper Chapel of St Mary's.  This was a place where pilgrims would remove their shoes and put on soft slippers or socks to enter the holy buildings of the Abbey.  It was renovated early in the twentieth century.  

We found the church unlocked and entered to find a neat, well kept building with a fine altar window. 

St Mary's Church

The new St Aelred's Trail opens next month

Towards the altar

Towards the rear

Altar window

The house opposite the church has an interesting sundial

'The shadow shows/demonstrates the light'

We set off once more, down through the village and past the Abbey ruins to Rievaulx Bridge.  TSB tells how Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, who, arriving here during a July afternoon, described how she "could have stayed in this solemn, quiet spot till evening without a thought of moving, but William was waiting for me."   

TSB explains that the Abbey sits in a natural amphitheatre which was granted to the Cistercian monks by the Lord of Helmsley, and  building began in 1132.  Because of the Abbey's site between a hill and the River Rye the church faces North - South instead of the usual East - West.  By 1200 there were 140 monks and 500 lay brothers but like nearby Byland Abbey, it was suppressed in 1538.

House with character in Rievaulx

Recently renovated Abbey Cottage and side view of the abbey ruins

Village house

Views of the Abbey

We walked past the Visitors' Centre to reach Rievaulx Bridge which we crossed, following the road to pretty Ashberry Farm.  Here the path turns behind the building and immediately starts to climb Ashberry Hill.  

Rievaulx Bridge

Old Yorkshire North Riding sign for Rievaulx Abbey

Approaching Ashberry Farm

Go through the gate at the rear of the building

Now on the cold and shady side of the valley we followed the wooded path through Lambert Hagg Wood from where we had an occasional view of the Abbey through saplings and above, the Ionic Temple built by a local squire in 1758.

Climbing behind Ashberry Farm

Memorial seat near Ashberry Farm

View from the seat

Folly - Ionic Temple above Rievaulx Abbey

We left the wood on the same road that we had followed on our outward route, past Tylas Farm.   We left the road just before reaching the farm, turning left onto a rough track that runs along Birk Bank.

Leaving the road just before Tylas Farm

.. and follow the track

The path meanders in and out of trees from about the midway point of Birk Bank until, after about 2.5 miles it finally reaches Caydale Mill, almost unseen in the trees below.

New sapling growth has made the path difficult

Eventually the track opens out near to Caydale Mill

Major works going on at Caydale Mill

Just beyond the mill we reached the road and a ford where we washed the mud from our boots.  

Cars using this lane must drive through 100 yards of water, but walkers cross by a bridge and can avoid getting wet feet, rejoining the road at the other side of the ford.

We passed by the entrance to the mill which has become a site entrance for the time being, and immediately began the long steep climb out of Caydale.

The road becomes a ford

Entrance to Caydale Mill

Looking along Caydale

We begin the climb

A red kite flies hopefully above

The lane becomes a very steep (1:4) climb for about half a mile, before eventually levelling out. After nine miles of walking this final climb is a test for the legs!  Eventually the  buildings of Murton Grange appeared in the distance and we reached the end of our walk.

We pass three fine bulls near Murton Grange

We reach the end of our walk

Murton is just above the village of Hawnby and a few minutes later we could be found sitting in the grounds of The Owl to discuss today's walk over a well earned pint of beer.

Cheers!