Walking in North Yorkshire

Hawnby Hill and Hazel Head from Hawnby

7 miles Sunny and breezy

Today's walk from Hawnby is one of our favourite Tom Scott Burns' walks and as it is nearly a year since we last walked this route we decided it was time for a re-visit. We arrived at Hawnby from the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley road via the Laskill turn off and parked at the roadside near the Inn at Hawnby.

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


The Inn at Hawnby

The village sits under Hawnby Hill (298m) whose twin Easterside Hill can be seen over towards the B1257. These two hills, known as Corallian Outliers, once formed part of the Tabular Hills and have a very distinctive shape. We left the road opposite the Inn and immediately started to climb across a field, fighting through high bracken until we reached the top of Hawnby Hill. From here there is a good view in all directions, to the left down to Arden Hall and to the right, Easterside Hill. It was pleasant to identify places we had visited on previous walks as we strolled along the ridge of Hawnby Hill.

Beginning the climb from Hawnby village

We soon enter dense bracken

Into trees for a short while...

... before climbing to the ridge of Hawnby Hill

Looking back towards Hawnby

Looking east towards Easterside Hill

A pleasant ridge walk

Cairn on Hawnby Hill at 978'

As we walked along the ridge we came to a neatly built cairn, so neat in fact that Clive and I suspect it to be the work of one person. We passed it by and coming to the end of the ridge we descended to the moor gate and the purple heather of Hawnby Moor.

Dropping down towards the moor gate

Sign at moor gate

We passed through the Moor Gate and walked along the sandy path of Sunley Slack and after about a mile came to a fork in the road. We took the left fork and followed the path, seemingly walking straight towards Bilsdale Mast. To our right was Round Hill which is simply a collection of rocks and a bump in the heather. Just by this we saw a wooden post with a yellow way mark pointing left away from our track, across the moor towards Hazel Head Woods whose tree tops could just be made out on the horizon. Although the way mark pointed the way we must go there was no sign whatsoever of any track, an experience which was to be repeated several times on this walk. Obviously the area isn't being walked very much which is a real shame as it has so much variety.

Looking back from Sunley Slack at Hawnby Hill

Marching through the heather

The irregular mound of Round Hill at 964'

Deciding on the best route across the heather

We find a track of sorts

We dropped down from Hawnby Moor towards the trees of Hazel Head Wood. The path was very indistinct and a bit boggy but ahead of us we saw the ruins of an old building which Tom Scott Burns informs us was a Wesleyan Chapel which must have taken its congregation from the people who occupied the buildings, now ruins, that are hidden among trees in Hazel Head Wood. The chapel was a bit further on but we decided to go and have a look at it. There is nothing to report, however, except nettles, but it was in the sun and sheltered so we sat in front of it and enjoyed our coffee and scones.

Disused chapel

We passed several large ants nests....

.... seething with busy ants

Nothing but nettles but...

... a nice view to enjoy with our coffee

We retraced our steps to the gate into Hazel Head Wood and found that the paths of last year were hidden in long grass. We made our way past the ruins of High Hazel Heads Farm and other ruins that pre-dated the woods, then made our way through tree stumps towards the Osmotherly to Hawnby road, which we reached just near the Hazel Heads Car Park and information board.

Gate to Hazel Head Woods

Ruins in the woods

What was once a way marked path leads us to the road

A short walk along tarmac

We turned left into the road and followed it to a stile into Ellers Wood. We walked along a wide forestry path, quickly losing height and eventually leading us to the River Rye, where we searched for the footbridge mentioned by TSB. We eventually found it but had to fight our way through bracken and brambles to reach the bridge, which is obviously little used.

Leaving the road into Ellers Wood

Saplings hide the path

Through here to the bridge!

The Bridge Over the River Rye

The path through Ellers Wood is not being used and saplings and brambles are encroaching along its route; if they are not cut back the path will disappear in a couple of years.

We followed our track alongside a beck and then into the trees of Blueberry Wood before dropping down past St Agnes House and Half Moon Plantation. This whole area was wick with young pheasants which ran along the path in front of us. There were feeders every few yards and occasionally we saw gruesome totems where keepers had strung up dead crows to discourage unwelcome diners.

Keeper's quad but no sign of the owner

To the left, Hawnby Hill and Easterside Hill byond

Lazy rams at St Agnes House

Female pheasant..

.. and male by a feeder

Dead crow totem

Passing St Agnes House farm we dropped down to a nice ford where we crossed a footbridge into Low Wood. Soon we came to the attractive arched bridge over the Rye, not mentioned by TSB as it post dates his book.

The arched bridge over the Rye appears ahead of us

View downstream from the bridge

A short scramble up from the bridge brought us to woodland near Carr House and we turned right to follow way marks (but no path) through several fields until we rejoined the Hawby road where we walked into the village and into the Inn at Hawnby.

Across fields from Carr House

We regain a spring in our step

Through a glass darkly. The view from the beer garden

Looking across at Hawnby from the beer garden

A Tour of Raisdale from Chop Gate

7 miles Warm and fairly sunny

We knew the heather would be in full bloom so we decided to do a moor walk today. We parked in the public car park at Chop Gate Village Hall on the B1257 road, where a walking group of ladies were preparing for the off. "Teesside Trekkers? Where's the rest of your party?" said their leader. We explained that we weren't the Teesside Trekkers and compared walks, the ladies were doing the first part of our walk then our routes would separate. They continued to wait in the car park for stragglers and we started on our way immediately by climbing over a stile at the rear of the car park, then following Raisdale Beck across meadowland to Cock Flat Farm.

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

Looking over towards Chop Gate from Raisdale Beck

The grass was long and very wet from last night's rain

A helpful board over the mud

We followed a nice assortment of field paths, little walked and wet, to Cock Flat Farm and then High West Cote Farm. To our left we looked down on to Raisdale, which TSB says means Reith's Valley. The last time we walked along here in winter the paths were easy to walk as there was no bracken, but today it was shoulder high and we had to be careful we didn't stand in any holes as we forced our way through it.

Clive pushes his way through the bracken

The valley of Raisdale to our left

Buzzards circle hopefully above us

We passed by High West Cote Farm and dropped down to the road and Stone Intake Farm. TSB tells us that this section of road was mentioned in the 1160 Rievaulx Charters as the Red Road, possibly because of the red shale in the area. Just tarmac today and we followed it for a short distance and reached a sign for Raisdale Mill where we turned left off the road. The mill is now a private house but operated as a mill until the 1920s. We stopped to meet a couple of horses, one of which was a Shetland pony, and Clive shared an apple with them.

Looking over at High House and the walk to come

High West Cote Farm

A mysterious find in a dry stone wall

We pass some cattle as we drop down to the road

Weather-vane at Stone Intake Farm

Stone Intake Farm

Another weather-vane at Stone Intake Farm

Just past the mill we entered a green lane and started our long ascent towards Barker's Crag.

Tom Scott Burns describes this green lane in the following words:

Just beyond the mill the walk pursues a path that veers right from the lane, then dramatically transforms into a most beautiful green lane which threads its way upwards to Barker's Ridge.

Since Tom wrote these words in the 1980s the green lane has been ruined by motor cycles and is now a badly rutted track. Last year we noticed that a tree had fallen across the lane completely blocking it to motor vehicles and today we saw that there were no new tyre tracks and we thought there was an improvement in the path, let's hope it isn't temporary.

Leaving the road just beyond Stone Intake Farm

Buildings at Raisdale Mill

"Any apples?"

Friendly horses

Clive shares his apple

Starting up the 'green lane'

Useful fallen tree

Eventually the green lane led us to Barker's Ridge and the moor. We past High House and found a sheltered spot for our coffee and scones. sitting in the sun to look back at our outbound route from Chop Gate.

We wondered what these standing stones had been used for near to High House

High House

The view from our coffee stop

Sometimes we sit and think and sometimes we just sit

After coffee we started walking towards Scugdale Head and from this point on we were walking through the intoxicating smell of heather in bloom. TSB say that "it is a marvellous sight to see myriads of bees skimming across the pollen clad flowers" but Clive and I saw very few bees today, perhaps because of the heavy overnight rain. Who knows? As we climbed we came to a nice 'surprise view' of Scugdale, down to our right and Barker's Crag looked fine in the heather.

Barker's Crag

Looking left from our path, to High House and beyond to Roseberry

Surprise view of Scugdale

The next couple of miles of trudging along a moorland track would normally have been a chore but today the heather made the walk exhilarating. Eventually our track dropped off left towards two small plantations and Head House, once derelict and now used as a store. We left the path to visit the old building, still unlocked and useful as a shelter in bad weather.

A layer of wool inside this shooting butt shows that sheep are using it as a shelter

Head House

Nicely restored on the outside...

... but the inside could do with a bit of work

Grouse feed

We walked on, past the conifer plantation and down to Arns Gill, almost hidden in bracken. We crossed the beck and walked up past the weathered old Rowan tree descibed in the '80s by TSB as "... a sorrowful looking rowan with wind shattered boughs - yet still growing - is seen by the side of Arns Gill." The last time we passed it in summer it had a good crop of red berries but this year there were none, however it still looks amazingly healthy for a fallen tree!

Arns Gill and the rowan tree

Making our way out of the bracken we gained the moor and climbed through purple heather until we reached Cock Howe and its standing stone.

Climbing towards Cock Howe

Exhilarating smell of heather in bloom

Cock Howe

From this point it was a steady descent down Trennet Bank towards Chop Gate. A lot of the hollow-ways formed over centuries by sledging turf down from the moor for fuel were full of bracken, so we kept to their tops as best we could, until we reached the car park and our car at Chop Gate Community Centre. By a happy chance this was situated very near to The Buck Inn and we sat in its beer garden to enjoy a pint and reflect on our walk.