Kirby Knowle to Felixkirk and Boltby

8.5 miles          Fine and cool

We approached Kirby Knowle from the Knayton A19 turn-off and parked at the side of the road opposite St Wilfred's Chuch. 

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

St Wilfred's Church

Well maintained interior of St Wilfred's, the organ can be seen on the left

Unlike our last visit to Kirby Knowle, St Wilfred's Church was unlocked, so we went in for a look around.  The church is very clean and tidy, it was rebuilt on the site of an older building in 1873 and has nice leaded glass windows.  We were particularly taken with a modern window that is a memorial to a lady doctor and featured Alexander Fleming and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman to qualify as a doctor and surgeon in Britain.

We liked this modern stained glass window

The window is a memorial to a doctor

We left the church and walked out of the village towards Upsall and looked up towards the distant but imposing dwelling of Newbuilding.  Although it is called Newbuilding TSB explains that it actually dates from the 13th century.  It has been restored and modernised but still contains many of its original features.

'Newbuilding'

Just before Upsall we turned off the road into fields and followed an unwalked and very overgrown path to Turton Beckstead.  Beckstead means 'a farm near a river' and as we reached the beck  we saw a stone clearly engraved 'The Turton Beckstead' embedded in the dry stone wall adjacent to the beck. It looks as if an old bridge has collapsed here.  TSB informs us that in the 1860s some mourners were carrying a body to Kirby Knowle for burial.  The bearers set down the coffin to briefly rest at this spot but on lifting it again it felt much lighter and they discovered that the corpse had disappeared. The empty coffin was buried and the site at Beckstead Wood became known as Lost Corpse End.

Leaving the road before Upsall

Walking across fields

Most of the gates on this walk had been unnecessarily tied shut with baling twine

Our track is unwalked

Leaving the fields to approach Turton Beckstead

Old carved stone near beck

Looks like an old bridge has collapsed here.  The stone above is just to the right of Clive

We soon arrived at the road and walked into Felixkirk.  Once again we were fortunate to find the church unlocked, unlike previous visits, and we were able to go inside.  St Felix's is a large church for the size of the village and in very good repair.  Nice windows and again I was impressed by a modern window, dedicated to a retired army officer.

Looking down towards Thirsk from the path to Felixkirk

Awkward stile and slippery bridge

St Felix, Felixkirk

Airy domed ceiling

Altar window

Modern stained glass window

As you can see from the above photograph of the church, the graveyard has been recently fenced off so it is difficult to see the interesting old gravestones such as that of Hannah Cornforth, photographed on a previous visit.

'Twenty years I was a maid, 1 year I was a wife. 18 hours a mother, and then departed life'

 

Felixkirk

We retraced our steps to the outskirts of Felixkirk and turned right at a road junction and passed the lodge to Mount St John, once a preceptory in the days of Henry I. We turned right down a lane towards Cinque Cliff House where the path has been diverted by the new owners through fields around the back of the house.  While on this diversion we found that we were sheltered from the breeze and sat on the sloping fields with a nice view to our left of Whitestone Cliff, to enjoy our coffee and scones.

The lodge to Mount St John

We bear right across the cattle grid towards Cinque House

Taking the new diversion around Cinque House

A pleasant place to sit for a while

Cinque House

We set off once more and our diversion rejoined the track below Cinque House and we followed a grassy lane to the road where we turned left and walked into Thirlby.

Green Lane

Some nice weathervanes in Thirlby

Thirlby is famous as the home of a woodcarver, Bob Hunter, who worked with 'Mouseman' Thomson of nearby Kilburn.  Bob used the trademark of a wren and his workshop is Pear Tree House down by the ford.  

The workshop of the Wren Man

Detail from the front porch

The workshop next to the ford

We walked past the workshop and some attractive cottages before turning left into fields.

Bridge Cottage, Thirlby

Walking through Thirlby

'No shop or inn is there here about, so why not sit down and enjoy summat for nowt'  - donated by 'two good sorts'

Unusual stile near Thirlby

Just past the ford we left the village through a gateway into a field where we followed a barely discernible track to Tang Hall, crossing a couple of becks and an unusual stile on the way.  One stile was extremely muddy and could not be circumnavigated.  Fortunately Clive found a branch which could be manoeuvered to form a rudimentary bridge over the mud.

Leaving the fields to enter a wood

A woodland path

Clive builds a way through the mud

Carefully does it

We walked through several fields containing cows, horses and sheep to reach Boltby, emerging onto the road next to the packhorse bridge.

We are watched as we pass by

A fine ram

Boltby

Packhorse bridge at Boltby

  

We turned left at the packhorse bridge and walked through the pretty village of Boltby before turning right at a waymarked sign at the lane between Spring Garth and Gurtof House.  We then followed a series of field boundaries to reach the modern mansion of Ravensthorpe Manor.

Racing weathervane in Boltby

Walking through Boltby

Leaving the village

As we approached the manor house we walked through a couple of fields containing horses, which seemed largely indifferent to us.  The final field also contained two pigs, one of which ran over to see if Clive had any biscuits.  It was in luck.  We were also fascinated to see a large brown horse, frozen like a statue, unblinking and unmoving as we walked right up to it.  It must have been fast asleep!

Something has seen us!

The horse on the right is fast asleep

Not a statue

 Yummy, biscuits!

'Any for me?'

The last of the biscuits

Sad to see us go

As we walked uphill behind Ravensthorpe Manor a large buzzard circled overhead, and when we stood still it came close enough for me to get a photograph.

A buzzard overhead

We followed our track through Westow Plantation and then across Birk Bank to return to Kirby Knowle and our car.

Westow Plantation

Birk Bank

Kirby Knowle appears in the distance

Back to St Wilfred's in Kirby Knowle

Rievaulx Abbey and Caydale from Murton

8.5 miles            Warm and sunny

Clive was busy this week so Carole accompanied me on this peaceful walk to Rievaulx Abbey.  We left the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley Road at the Laskill turn off and drove through Hawnby to park at the roadside near to Murton Grange.

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

We walked a short distance along the road and turned into Ox Pasture Lane which we followed to the top of Deep Gill Wood.   Our path ran alongside the wood for some time before reaching fields which we crossed to reach an old disused barn before descending to Barnclose Farm.

We leave the woods and cross fields to a ruined barn

Ruined barn

More fields then...

Our path ran through a gate and into the farmyard where we saw an old guard dog, fast asleep in the sunshine even though we had been talking as we approached.  Carole liked an ornamental hen we saw on a table in front of the farm, where we turned right across the front of the buildings and walked along the farm road.

Barnclose Farm

Sleeping guard dog

Unusual arrangement

Leaving Barnclose Farm

We then had a steady climb to reach Tylas Farm, which TSB tells us that the monks of Old Byland built as a grange and tile house, hence its name.  We passed the farm and continued along the road with Oxen Dale on our right until reaching a gate and way-mark on our left where we turned off the road and gradually descended to the River Rye.

Carole makes a friend at Tylas Farm

We turn off the road...

.. and descend to the River Rye

The next part of the walk was very pleasant as our path followed the river, sometimes on boardwalks, until we reached the road again and almost immediately crossed Bow Bridge.  TSB says this was originally a wooden construction, built by the monks of Rievaulx, and then rebuilt in the late 1700s following a flood which washed away the original structure.

Nice boardwalk alongside the river

Bow Bridge

Back into fields

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.  Our route followed the traces of the old canal that the monks had built 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.  We soon arrived at the village and turned right to follow the road past the entrance to Rievaulx Abbey until we came to a quiet spot where we could enjoy our coffee and scones.

Remains of the old canal

First glimpse of Rievaulx Abbey from our path

Houses in Rievaulx

Cottage garden in Rievaulx

The Abbey from our coffee stop

TSB tells how Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, who, like us, arrived 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."   

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.

We left our lunch spot in a field and continued along the road crossing stone-arched Rievaulx Bridge and following the road to Ashberry Farm.  We approached the farm and walked past another inactive guard dog, this one awake and watching us with a bored expression, and turned onto a hillside path running around Ashberry Hill.  

Rievaulx Bridge

Approaching Ashberry Farm

Indifferent to our passing

We followed the wooded path through Lambert Hagg Wood and as on previous walks here, cursed the new growth that has removed the wonderful view of the Abbey that Tom Scott Burns describes in his book, which was written in the 1980s.   Perhaps we should return to walk this path in winter when we should have a view of sorts through the bare branches.  

We left the wood on the same road that we had followed past Tylas Farm on the way out, but this time we left the road before the farm, turning left to climb onto Birk Bank on the other side of the valley.  

Walking across Birk Bank

A mile of walking along this woodland track took us to Caydale Mill below us, and just beyond we reached the road and a ford where we washed our muddy boots.  Cars on this route drive through 100 yards of water, but walkers cross by a bridge and avoid getting wet feet.  A long steep climb up this road took us back to Murton Grange and our car.  

Boot washing in the ford

Murton Grange appears in the distance

The large outbuildings at Murton Grange