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.
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.
 |
| 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 |
