Walking in North Yorkshire

Rievaulx Abbey and Caydale from Murton

8.5 miles Sunny but cool

Today was a fine sunny autumn day so we thought we would do one of our favourite Tom Scott Burns walks.

We left the B1257 Stokesley to Helmsley Road at the Hawnby turn off and parked at the roadside near to the white painted buildings of Murton Grange.

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

Murton Grange

Hawnby Hill from the car park

The first of many pheasants we saw today

Tom Scott Burns explains in his 'Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills' that the township of Murton was given to Byland Abbey by Hugh Malebisse in the 12th century. A grange was constructed by lay brothers and was basically a well organised farm with a small chapel.

We walked past the neat white buildings of the grange and after a short distance turned into Ox Pasture Lane. We followed the lane to the top of Deep Gill Wood whilst ahead of us trotted dozens of young pheasants, determined not to take to the air. The Pheasant Shooting Season began on October 1st but there appears to have been no inroad into the local population and we heard no guns today.

Murton Grange

Ox Pasture Lane

Walking alongside Deep Gill Wood

Leaving Ox Pasture Lane at the gate

We followed Ox Pasture Lane for nearly two miles, eventually leaving the woods at a farm gate and crossing fields occupied by horses and sheep to an old barn.

Trees of Caydale and our return path

Approaching the old barn

Passing to the left of the barn we descended to Barnclose Farm where the path goes through the farm yard and turns right onto the farm track.

Autumn colours

Barnclose Farm

Late chicks at Barnclose

Walking through the farmyard

Leaving Barnclose Farm we had a steady climb on tarmac to reach Tylas Farm, which TSB tells us was built by the monks of Old Byland as a grange and tile house, hence its name. Here we stood for a while and watched an unusually large group of five buzzards being harried by crows which eventually chased them away from their territory.

Leaving Barnclose Farm

Stream in spate near Tylas Farm

Tylas Farm

Buzzards near Tylas Farm

We passed the farm and continued along the road to Oxendale until reaching a gate and a way-mark on our left, where we turned off the road and entered dying bracken to gradually descend to the River Rye.

The path now leads through the valley of Oxendale, the River Rye on the left. We followed a pleasant grassy track until we reached the river and our path became a boardwalk over areas that obviously suffer from flooding.

Passing Tylas Farm...

.. and turning off the lane

River Rye

Boardwalk alongside River Rye

We emerged onto tarmac and almost immediately crossed the river at Bow Bridge, originally built by the Cistercian monks of Rievaulx. 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.

Walking towards Bow Bridge

Bow Bridge

Leave the road into fields

Our route across the fields 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. The river was dammed here and water diverted into the canal.

Clive crosses the ditch where the old canal brought stone from the quarry

As we walked through fields towards the abbey we were rewarded with a fine view of the ruins. Tom Scott Burns says that Rievaulx Abbey is undoubtedly a place to walk to, rather than from.

Approaching the Abbey

Emerging into the village of Rievaulx we turned left onto the road to walk uphill to the Slipper Chapel of St Mary's. This was a place where pilgrims would remove their shoes and put on soft slippers or socks to enter the holy buildings of the Abbey. It was renovated early in the twentieth century.

Village house in Rievaulx

St Mary's Church

We found the church unlocked and entered to find a neat, well kept building with a fine altar window.

Altar window

Window dedicated to Earl of Feversham

A penitent at St Mary's

Memorial Cross - wood from The Somme

Outside the church we noticed a large sun dial on the house opposite with the words "Lucem Demonstrat Umbra", meaning roughly "from shadow comes light".

"From Shadow Comes Light"

A few steps back downhill brought us to a bench which faced both the sun and the ruins and here we sat here to enjoy our coffee and scones.

View from our coffee stop

After a leisurely break we packed our bags and set off once more, down through the village and past the Abbey ruins to Rievaulx Bridge. TSB tells how Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, who, arriving 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."

Clive shares his apple

TSB explains that 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 walked past the Visitors Centre to reach Rievaulx Bridge which we crossed, following the road to pretty Ashberry Farm. Here our path turned behind the building and immediately started to climb Ashberry Hill.

Rievaulx Bridge

Ashberry Farm

Ionic Temple folly

On Ashberry Hill

As on previous visits our view was not the magnificent one enjoyed by TSB in the days before it was spoiled by sapling growth, however at one point a gap in the trees gave us a view of one of the Ionic Temples built above the abbey by a local squire in 1758.

We followed the wooded path through Lambert Hagg Wood and left the wood on the same road that we had followed on our outward route, past Tylas Farm. This time we left the road just before reaching the farm, turning left onto a muddy track that runs along Birk Bank.

Returning on the opposite side of the valley

Lambert Hagg Wood

Walking through the wood

As we walked along Birk Bank we heard the unmistakable bellowing calls of stags in the woods of Caydale, on the opposite side of the valley. We stopped and searched the trees eventually spotting several deer in a clearing. I zoomed my camera in to get a better look at them. Sadly no stags were to be seen, although the bellowing continued as we resumed our walk.

Deep Gill Woods on the opposite side of the valley

Three deer

No, four! A youngster next to the tree trunk

A mile of walking along this woodland track took us to Caydale Mill whose roofs can be seen below, and just beyond the mill we reached the road and a ford where we washed the mud from our boots. Cars using this lane must drive through 100 yards of water, but walkers cross by a bridge and can avoid getting wet feet, rejoining the road at the other side of the ford.

We resume in Birk Bank Woods

Caydale Mill below

Boot cleaning at the ford

Beyond the ford the lane becomes a very steep (1:4) climb for about half a mile, before eventually levelling out. After eight miles of walking this climb is a test for the legs! Eventually the white buildings of Murton Grange appeared in the distance and we were soon back at the car.