Walking in North Yorkshire: Balk

Balk and Bagby from Sutton Village

7 miles

We drove into Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe on the A170 from the A19 and parked in the Whitestonecliffe Inn Car Park. Tom Scott Burns tells us that hikers are welcome to use the inn's car park but twenty five years later, sadly the pub is no longer open for business. The enormous car park is still there however and there seems to be no objection to parking behind the pub.

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

We walked from the pub and turned right onto the A170 which we followed through the village, spotting several interesting weather vanes.

Weather vanes in Sutton-under-Whitestone Cliff

Derelict Bamber House on the High Street

Walking through the village

Lots of flags today - VE Day

The last stretch is on the busy road, more verge on this side

This is a busy road and traffic whizzed past us as we crossed the bridge over Sutton Beck and turned left off the road and into a track at a footpath sign.

Turn left off the road at the footpath sign

New bee hives, a bit cool for bees today

Our route led us straight across a field where a large herd of heifers waited in anticipation and rather than push through them we crossed the beck and walked up on the other side of it, recrossing when we were safely past them.

Keep right at the sewage works

Hmm, young heifers!

Evasion. We cross the shallow Sutton Beck

We then walked on through more fields next to Sutton Beck, until it emerges beyond a static caravan park at the tiny hamlet of Balk.

We re-emerge behind them

... and re-joined the path to cross the bridge

Walking behind houses into Balk

Mill House, Balk

Alice in Wonderland - on a fence in Balk

Business in Balk

On the road to Bagby

TSB tells us that Balk originates in the Old English 'balca' or 'bank' and would have applied to the ridge of land between Balk Beck and Hood Beck.

We walked into Balk and admired its three storey mill, now renovated into housing, and opposite it, the old mill buildings which have been taken over by a furniture manufacturer. We stayed on the road heading west until we reached the larger village of Bagby where we turned left onto a track near new housing just before entering the village. There is no obvious footpath sign here and when it does appear, 20 yards along the track, it is found almost hidden in bushes.

Turn left here as you enter Bagby

You have to look for the sign!

Weather vane in Bagby

The gravel track leads to fields where we turned right to walk alongside the crops. As you see from the map above we are now headed south along this track to the village of Thirkleby. We passed by another caravan park at Pond Wood and the grounds of Thirkleby Hall before emerging on to the road by the old school house.

Leaving Bagby

Residents of Bagley

Passing cow parsley on field tracks

Himalayan horse chestnut flowers

Pond Wood Caravan Park

Hawthorn in flower

Houses of Thirkleby on the horizon

Whitestone Cliff in the distance

We walked through Great Thirkleby and came to the isolated church of All Saints' where we sat and enjoyed our coffee and scones.

All Saints at Thirkleby

Very Gothic!

"Er, have you got a duster?"

After coffee we looked in at All Saints Church, which is open to visitors and is nicely kept and interesting to walk round. It is bigger than one would expect for the size of the village, with fine stained glass windows picturing St George and St Martin.

Looking towards the altar

Leaving the church we walked back to the road then crossed straight over to join a field path leading to a footbridge, then quickly on to the Little Thirkleby Road, where we turned left to walk parallel with the route we had followed into Thirkleby, this time to the right of Thirkleby Beck.

Cleveland Bay (?) at Thirkleby

Lots of cows about today

Calves too!

Thirkleby backs

Cross stile in corner of field

Follow faint track along edge of field

Wild garlic and hawthorn blooms

The next bit of the walk became rather tricky. We could find no way-mark signs (most unusual!) and field enlargement appears to have swallowed up the footpath described by TSB. New barbed wire topped fences edge the field and whoever installed them has not left sufficient room for a footpath.

We stayed on the field side of the fence keeping close to it.

New fence

Mind your inseam Clive, that barbed wire is sharp

The ground was hard as iron and very dry

In 2014 when walking this route we discovered a car amongst shrubbery in a ditch near the stream and wondered how it had got to this remote point and when? Then Clive had climbed down to examine it and checking the engine plate found it to be a Standard 10 from the 1950s. We saw it again today by chance when we stopped to look at a wildflower; it appears to have slipped further towards the stream and is out of reach.

2014

2025

We continued across fields until reaching the large farm of Low Osgoodby Grange.

Dishevelled tups at Low Osgoodby Grange

"Come and see me"

Friendly sheepdog

Walking away from the farm

From Osgoodby Grange we followed the farm's track to the tarmac road where we turned left, heading back towards Balk. In the distance we could now see Whitestone Cliff.

Passing Mount Pleasant Farm we re-entered fields for a couple of miles and again found waymark signs to be sparse.

Chewing the cud at Mount Pleasant Farm

"Hey, them ducks are pinching our hay!"

More field paths returned us to Balk via Balk Wood Farm where once again we found our walk disturbed by cattle, this time milling about near the farm, perhaps waiting to be milked.

The cracks are inches deep

The summer crops are suffering with drought conditions

Our path goes right through the middle of that lot

We're a friendly bunch

Just before our field path returned us to the tiny village of Balk we turned right and followed the track, now clearly way-marked, across fields until reaching the road at Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe. Here we turned right and walked back to the Whitestonecliffe Inn and the car park.