Walking in North Yorkshire: "river seph"

Hawnby, Easterside Hill and Shaken Bridge

7.5 miles Cool and dry

We approached Hawnby from the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley road and parked at the lower houses of Hawnby Bridge behind the village hall, where parking is free although a sign indicates an honesty box.

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

Clive pops some cash in the honesty box

Tom Scott Burns explains that the village of Hawnby is divided into an upper and lower part because in the 1750s a zealous landlord turned out all the Methodists from their houses. They had lived in what we now think of as the top village. They moved a short distance away where they built some small houses and a Wesleyan Chapel, completed in 1770, which is now the lower village hall.

Turning right out of the car park we walked past the few houses to a gate in the field opposite. We went through the gate into a sheep field with a faint path to follow across this and the next meadow to cross Ladhill Beck at a bridge.

Walking through the village

Enter the fields at the white bench

Easterside Hill awaits us

Crossing Ladhill Beck

We walked alongside Ellers Wood and reached the Hawnby road next to Easterside Farm, where we turned left on to the tarmac.

Lots of mole traps near Ellers Wood, locations indicated by sticks

Entering Ellers Wood

More mole traps alongside Ellers Wood

Beaters arriving for duty

Beaters and dogs pile out

After chatting to the beaters who were curious to know where we were walking, we turned right off the road and followed the trail under the shadow of Easterside Hill. We walked for about a mile before dropping down past High Banniscue Farm.

Banniscue Wood

Hawnby Hill to our left

High Banniscue Farm

Just before High Banniscue we were buzzed by a couple of fighter jets, which seems to becoming a weekly event.

When we reached the farm we turned left to walk downhill along a faint track to reach an old ruined building shown as Crows Nest on the OS map. We turned right at these ruins to pass through the moor gate and followed a path through heather to skirt Pepper Hill and Easterside Hill.

Bandits!

Buzzed just before High Banniscue Farm

Here comes another!

Crows Nest ruins

Pepper Hill and Easterside Hill from Crows Nest

Beyond renovation

Moor gate

Smaller Pepper Hill sticks out from Easterside Hill and in the last war a German Dornier crashed here on 17th December 1942, killing all the crew. There is a memorial to the crew in Hawnby Church.

Passing Pepper Hill we walked through heather along the east side of Easterside Hill looking down at the valley of Bilsdale to our left before dropping down to join the Hawnby road.

Looking across Bilsdale as we skirt Pepper Hill

Alongside Pepper Hill and Easterside Hill

Looking into Bilsdale

Turn right off the Hawnby road at the sign

After a hundred yards or so on tarmac we turned right off the Hawnby road at a new gate and old footpath sign and once again entered sheep fields. Here we soon came to the deserted buildings of Wass House where we sat sheltered from the wind and enjoyed our coffee and scones while watching the beaters on Easterside Hill and listening to the constant sound of guns from Low Banniscue.

Wass House

Ripe for renovation

A sheltered spot for coffee

Refreshed, we left the old farmstead and descended across the meadows to arrive at the ruins of Grimes Holme, where beaters were returning to their cars with their dogs.

Descending from Wass House to Grimes Holme

Looking back to Wass House

Grimes Holme

The dogs' work is done

After Grimes Holme we walked down to cross a wooden gated bridge over the River Seph at a point which TSB says is often frequented by herons. Not the case today, unfortunately, and we crossed more fields to join a farm track that leads past Fair Hill Farm and to recently renovated Broadway Foot farm.

More dogs arriving at Grimes Holme

Crossing the River Seph

Arriving at....

Fair Hilll Farm

A buzzard watches our slow progress hopefully

Weather vane at Broadway Foot Farm

The newly rebuilt Broadway Foot Farm

We continued down the farm track to reach the road and Shaken Bridge. TSB tells us that its name derives from the Old English 'sceacre' or robber, i.e. Robber's Bridge. The River Seph and The River Rye combine a few hundred yards upstream from the bridge and become the River Rye.

The River Seph is formed when Raisdale Beck and Bilsdale Beck join just to the south of Chop Gate and then runs for 13 miles down Bilsdale to the Rye. The name Seph is Old Swedish for 'calm'.

Path through the woods near Shaken Bridge

Crossing Shaken Bridge

Looking downstream, the Seph has become the River Rye

We crossed the bridge and after walking on the road for a hundred yards we turned sharp left following a farm road uphill past Shaken Bridge Farm until we came to East Ley Wood. Bearing right up the track an old barn comes into view, a building we recognised as one we have approached from other directions on various walks.

Turn left off the road towards the farm

Shaken Bridge Farm

Residents at Shaken Bridge

Bilsdale has become Ryedale

Telephoto lens back to modern Broadway Foot Farm

Climbing to East Ley Wood and looking back to Easterside Hill

Alongside East Ley Wood

Mysterious leather signs - what do they mean, who placed them and why?

Winter cattle grazing near the old barn

The old barn is a feature of a couple of TSB walks

The path meanders along the side of the wood for 1.5 miles, eventually emerging at Murton Bank top. Trees bordering the path appear to have taken the full brunt of the recent storms and we had to negotiate around more than a dozen places where fallen trees had blocked the path.

Winter calf

Fortunately the cattle were disinterested in us

The first of many fallen trees

The path enters East Ley Wood

The trickiest of the lot, we have to go into the wood to bypass

East Ley Wood became Cliff Wood and eventually we reached Murton Bank Top where we turned right and walked downhill coming to a 'surprise view' at Peak Scar Top, a short distance down the road.