Roseberry Topping, Easby Moor and Captain Cook's Monument from Great Ayton

7 miles                                   Dry and cool        

Heavy rain during the last few days made us decide on a moor walk and we thought we'd visit the Cleveland Matterhorn, Roseberry Topping, as we haven't been there for a while.  So not one of Tom Scott Burn's walks today but one I'm sure he would have been familiar with. 

Tracklogs view of today's walk

We parked on the high street in front of the butcher's shop and were amused by a sign in the window showing their pies being consumed on Dove Crag and Ben Nevis.

Pie hiking - Sign in Ayton Butchers

We walked along the high street passing the small school house where Captain Cook was taught as a boy. A sign showed the school is now a museum but that it is only open to visitors from April to October.  We followed the high street and crossed the road to enter a footpath alongside Cleveland Lodge, which we found to be very muddy.

Captain Cook's school

Duck weather-vane on the high street opposite the river

Muddy footpath alongside Cleveland Lodge

Progress gets tricky

We crossed the Middlesbrough to Whitby railway line near Ryehill Farm and continued through farm fields before heading steeply uphill into trees to reach Cliff Rigg Quarry where whinstone was mined until 1973.  We detoured from our path to climb steeply to the ridge of the quarry for a better look. The quarry, which is remarkably large and deep, looks disused and forgotten.

Crossing the railway

Sign at the entrance to Cliff Ridge Wood

Looking along the quarry

The right side of the quarry

Roseberry from Cliff Rigg Quarry

We retraced our steps to rejoin our farm track towards Roseberry, crossing several fields and steadily climbing until we reached Wilson's Folly, a Victorian shooting box on the slopes of Roseberry.

Farm tracks to Roseberry

Approaching Wilson's Folly

Plaque on the shooting box

Roseberry from the shooting box

Leaving the shooting box we continued to climb until we reached the summit, where, standing by the trig point, we enjoyed great views in all directions.

The hill is believed to have been held in special regard by the Vikings who settled here and gave the area many of its place names. They gave Roseberry Topping its present name: first attested in 1119 as Othenesberg, (Othenes (personal name) rock, or Odin's rock.   If the latter, Roseberry Topping is one of only a handful of known pagan names in England, being named after the Norse God Odin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseberry_Topping       

The locations of this walk made us think of Captain Cook, and standing here on the summit we could see Marton, where I live and where he was born and Ayton where he went to school.  We wondered if he had ever stood here on top of Roseberry, as a youth.  I bet he did.  Next we were going to visit the monument erected to his memory.

Not resting, just reading the graffitti

Great Ayton from Roseberry

Looking towards the coast

Guisborough in the distance

Newton under Roseberry

We walked down from the summit to rejoin our path and saw the first of many newly erected signs we saw today.  We have mixed feelings about them but perhaps they will look better when weathered.

The acorn stands for the Cleveland Way

Looking back towards Roseberry from Newton Moor

With Roseberry behind us we headed south towards Easby Moor and Captain Cook's Monument.  Our path led us down to Gribdale Gate where a picnic table had been thoughtfully positioned for our coffee stop.

Captain Cook's Monument appears in the distance

Coffee and scones at Gribdale

From Gribdale we climbed up towards the monument, stopping briefly to look at a memorial plaque to a British air crew, killed here during WW2. There had obviously been a Remembrance Day visit to the spot, judging by the poppies.  Nice that they are still being remembered.

Memorial Plaque on Easby Moor

Approaching the Monument

Memorial Stone on the Monument

We reached the monument and read through the plaque.  Neither of us had realised that Cook was only 41 when he died.  We walked towards two old gateposts to leave the moor and begin our descent towards Great Ayton.

Great Ayton below us

Looking back as we begin our descent

Pine needles helpfully carpet the mud, making our descent easier

Looking across to Roseberry and Gribdale Terrace

As we reached Dykes Lane we made a decision to stray from our map, as we did not want to walk back through the mud we had experienced on our outward journey, near Cleveland Lodge.  We turned left just before Dykes Lane into a farm track where there was a Weak Bridge sign, and this led us, via the weak railway bridge, to Woodhouse Farm.  We were surprised to see that the farm now hosts a brand new building which is a cafe above and barn below.

We turn left here

Anti-climb bridge!

New cafe at Woodhouse Farm

Huntsman and hounds weather-vane at Woodhouse Farm

Nice house sign with tractor

Swaledale Rams near Brookside Farm

Late butterfly (moth?) Don't know what sort
Do now! Thanks Roger.  It's a Comma Butterfly, unusual in the North

 Reaching Great Ayton we diverted briefly into the Royal Oak for a pint of Deuchars IPA, before walking alongside the Green and returning to our car. 

Statue to James Cook on Ayton Green

War memorial on the village green

Hawnby, Easterside Hill and Shaken Bridge

7.5 miles                     Dry and Bright   

We approached Hawnby from the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley Road which we left at the Laskill turn-off.  We drove through the top village and continued down to the houses of Hawnby Bridge. Tom Scott Burns explains that the village is so divided 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.  We parked behind this Chapel where parking is free for about a dozen cars.

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

Walking through Lower Hawnby

On leaving the car park we turned right into Hawnby Bridge, crossed the road at the junction and passed through the gate into a field following the way-marks and a faint trail in the grass.   We crossed several meadows to Ladhill Beck after which we had a long but gentle climb to Ellers Wood before exiting on a road near to Easterside Farm.  We followed the road for a short time in the shadow of Easterside Hill, before leaving it to follow a farm track to High Banniscue Farm.

Looking back to Hawnby

Suffolk sheep watch us pass by

We followed a faint track left from the farm, keeping Pepper Hill and Easterside Hill to our right, across fields to a gate leading onto the moor.  Passing through the gate we immediately joined a track heading right which would take us back round the other side of Pepper Hill and Easterside Hill.  On this eastern side of Pepper Hill we saw a damaged wall and impact crater made by a German Dornier in the last war when it crashed on 17th December 1942.  In last week's blog I describe visiting Hawnby Church and inspecting a memorial window to the four German airmen killed in the crash.

Crossing Ladhill Beck

Looking across at Hawnby Hill

We join a moor path to circumnavigate Pepper Hill

Site of the WW2 plane crash

Memorial to the German airman at Hawnby Church

Our path descended to the Laskill - Hawnby road that we had  driven along earlier from the B1257.  We joined the road for a hundred yards then entered a field at a footpath sign to descend further, across meadows, to the ruins of Grimes Holme.  We were ready for a little something by this time so sheltered from the breeze at Grimes Holme to enjoy our coffee and scones.  Chatting away we didn't notice that we had been approached by four curious horses and several cattle, who we had seen earlier and thought were safely on the other side of a fence.  A horse sneezed and we looked behind us in surprise.  Fortunately we had finished our scones and hastily packed our bags and moved off to reach a wooden gated bridge where we crossed the River Rye.  

Leaving the Hawnby Road to enter fields

Our walk today was very muddy

Grimes Holme coffee stop

These horses know a way out of their field and joined us at Grimes Holme

Crossing the River Rye

Walking across another couple of fields brought us to a gate where cattle had made the way completely impassable because of mud.  We had to climb over a barbed wire fence and leave the track for a field's length, before joining it again at Fair Hill Farm, which TSB described as a pig rearing farm, although we saw no sign of pigs today.

The mud was six inches deep so....

...we left the path for a while

Fair Hill Farm

We walked down the farm track passing Broadway Foot Farm.  When we passed by here last year the farm building was a ruin having suffered a fire and today workmen were busy laying the foundations for a new building, the old one having been demolished.

Sign at Fair Hill Farm

Sheep at Fair Hill Farm

Easterside Hill to our right

Approaching Broadway Foot Farm

Dog and bull weathervane at Broadway Foot Farm

The ruined farmhouse last November

Same spot today

We followed the lane past Broadway Foot Farm and turned right through a gate into woods and a nice track through the trees led us to the Hawnby to Helmsley road and Shaken Bridge. TSB tells us that its name derives from the Old English 'sceacre' or robber;  ie Robber's Bridge.  We crossed the bridge and after walking on the road for a hundred yards we turned sharp left and followed a farm road uphill until we came to East Ley Wood.  Bearing right up the track an old barn came into view, a building we recognised as one we have approached from other directions on other walks.  We walked through a gate into East Ley Wood.

Leaving Broadway Foot farm track to enter woods

Approaching Shaken Bridge

Looking upstream from the bridge

Walking uphill to East Ley Wood

We were amused to see a homemade sign on gates in this area depicting a cheerful hiker. We wondered who had gone to the trouble to make the signs and what was their purpose?

What does this sign mean?

Our track now meandered next to a dry stone wall for about 1.5 miles, the woods always to our right, eventually ending at Murton Bank top.

The old barn

A nice walk alongside East Ley Wood

We turned right onto the road at Murton Bank top and descended Murton Bank, all the time enjoying fine views to our left.  The twin settlements of Hawnby grew more distinct with Hawnby Hill behind.

Descending Murton Bank

Upper and lower Hawnby from the road

We crossed Hawnby Bridge and walked into the village to reach our car.  A short drive uphill took us to the Inn at Hawnby and a welcoming pint of Black Sheep while we discussed the day's walk.

Hawnby Bridge

Walk's end!