"There must be dales in Paradise
Which you and I will find.."
Showing posts with label "hut circles". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "hut circles". Show all posts

Sunday 7 January 2018



The Hanging Stone and High Cliff from Gribdale Gate


8 miles                          Fine and still


We've had heavy rain this week and field paths are sure to be sodden and boggy so we decided to do this moor walk where the ground should be better underfoot.



We parked at Gribdale Gate and followed the footpath steeply uphill and onto Great Ayton Moor.  In The Walker's Guide to the Cleveland Hills, Tom Scott Burns relates a curious belief from a 19th century book called 'Customs of North Riding' which states, 'Anyone who dares to stand near Gribdale Gate at midnight on New Year's Eve will see an old man pass through the gate and vanish'.  
New Year's Eve was a few days ago so we should be OK.



We begin the climb to Great Ayton moor

After reaching the moor the footpath followed a dry stone wall with views over to Roseberry Topping.  We came to a gate at Newton Moor but turned right just before it and followed the straightforward walk as shown in the map above. 
Today's walk from The Walker's Guide to the Cleveland Hills

Tom Scott Burns mentions that this is the site of a chambered cairn, part of a complex Neolithic burial site dating from the Bronze Age, roughly 2300 - 800BC, a time when these moors were covered with mixed forest and woodland clearance was  beginning to take place. By the Iron Age the site was treeless and cultivation was in progress.  Following the Iron Age, heather had spread across the moor replacing farmland, so the moors have in fact looked much as they do now since that time. 


Looking back from Ayton Moor

Crossing Ayton Moor to Newton Moor

Roseberry to our left


Looking at Roseberry from the gate at Newton Moor



Crossing Newton Moor

Approaching Hanging Stone

Guisborough from Hanging Stone

High Cliff appears in the distance



Descending through Hutton Lowcross Woods

Moving at speed on slippery ground


Our path goes uphill past the eco-house on the left



Approaching High Cliff

Coffee at High Cliff

We walk under High Cliff

Highcliff Farm

Walking along Codhill Heights

Female grouse

There goes the male!

Sleddale Farm

Sheep at Sleddale


On Percy Cross Road


Iron Age Hut Circles


A spot of colour in the hut circle...

Remembrance cross in the stone circle

Looks like motor cycles are allowed after all...


Lonsdale Bowl 
Go toward the light....  and the car