Arden Great Moor Circular
10.5 miles Fine and warm
A lovely autumn day with sunshine and very little wind tempted us to do a longer walk from The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills.
Tom Scott Burns suggests starting the walk from Arden Hall but we prefer to park at Square Corner (the 'P' top left in the map below) on the Osmotherley to Hawnby road and make Arden Hall our rest spot.
 |
| Today's walk from The Walker's Guide to the Cleveland Hills |
Leaving the car we walked southwards along the forest path up the shoulder of Black Hambleton.
Just before reaching a gate we saw a standing stone on the left, bearing the inscription 'Cray Hall Stone'. Tom Scott Burns says that he has been unable to find any further information about this old boundary stone or the hall it refers to, and our modern day Google search has proved equally uninformative.
 |
| Black Hambleton |
 |
| Cray Hall Stone mystery |
After a long climb we walked along the drovers' road known as Hambleton Street for about 2.5 miles, with fine views to our right across to Kepwick, until reaching the ruins of the old drovers' inn that was known as Limekiln House.
 |
| First glimpse of lovely Thorodale Valley |
 |
| Clive starts the steep descent |
 |
| ... and the full valley comes into view |
 |
| Lovely Thorodale |
 |
| High bracken on the valley floor |
 |
| We hear beaters shouting above, pheasant shooting season is underway |
It is always a pleasure to walk through Thorodale although today we were walking towards a low sun. We followed the track through Thorodale Wood then North Moor Wood with brief glimpses of Thorodale Lake below. We walked down to Arden Hall passing the memorial seat erected in memory of three hikers who were killed in a road accident on their way home after a walk. Normally we would sit here for our coffee but today the bench was out of the sun and looked uninviting. We were surprised to see someone has erected a cable run from a nearby tree but there was no other sign of outdoor entertainment.
Just past the seat we came to the rear of Arden Hall and after a quick look at the buildings we retraced our footsteps back up to a sunlit field, where we sat and enjoyed our coffee and scones with a beautiful view across Arden Hall towards Daletown Common.
 |
| North Moor Wood |
 |
| Approaching Arden Hall |
 |
| Memorial Bench |
 |
| What's this? |
 |
| Cable runway |
 |
| A nice spot for coffee |
 |
| The pheasants seem very tame |
 |
| A bucolic view |
 |
| Autumn finery |
Arden Hall occupies the site of the Benedictine nunnery of St Andrew, founded in 1148. All that's left of the nunnery is an old chimney, now embodied in Arden Hall.
 |
| Approaching the rear of Arden Hall |
 |
| The front of the hall |
TSB says that the name Arden was probably derived from arn, an eagle, and doen, a deep valley - the valley of the eagle.
After our coffee we rejoined our earlier path, this time turning right to walk towards Mount Pleasant Farm. As we walked past the farm we had fine views over to Coomb Hill on our right and the rooftops of Arden Hall below.
 |
| Clive looks towards Coomb Hill |
 |
| The rooftops of Arden Hall below |
 |
| Walking towards Mount Pleasant Farm, Hawnby Hill to the right |
 |
| Mount Pleasant Farm |
 |
| A Texel ram dwarfs the Swaledale sheep |
 |
| Hawnby Hill with its distinctive nick on the skyline |
Walking up from the farm we passed the pretty cottage known as Harker Gates then on into the woods of North Moor. Ahead to our right was the unmistakable profile of Hawnby Hill.
After crossing Eskerdale Beck by a small bridge our path took us past two ruined farms, Brewster Hill and Cow Wath. Although no longer occupied, the outbuildings of Brewster Hill are still in use.
 |
| Harker Gates |
 |
| Down to Eskerdale Beck |
 |
| Blueberry Wood |
 |
| Fungus in Blueberry Wood |
 |
| Greens Wood and we are about to get a surprise.. |
Walking through Greens Wood Clive suddenly stopped and pointed ahead. Just 15 feet in front we could see a set of large antlers, a stag must be lying in the sun. It became aware of us and jumped to its feet and ran up the hill a short distance where it stopped and for a minute stared at us. Eventually it moved off, but what an enjoyable meeting it had been for us.
 |
| Can you see the antlers? A stag lying in the sun just in front of us! |
 |
| It becomes aware and runs uphill |
 |
| .. where it stops in the bracken to watch us |
 |
| It moves a bit further |
 |
| ... before stopping to watch us once more |
We continued following the faint path, now with the River Rye running parallel below us until after a couple of miles we passed the ruins of Far House.
 |
| Lots more fungus - waxcaps? |
 |
| Pretty sure these are Fly Agaric... and poisonous |
We passed by Low Locker Farm and over a large bridge at Dale Head. Just upstream from this bridge is the source of the River Rye.
 |
| Cow Wath ruin |
 |
| Lots of partridges near Far House |
 |
| Partridge season starts 1st September but they are still in large numbers here |
 |
| Large bridge |
 |
| Approaching the ruins of Dale Head Farm |
 |
| Dale Head |
We now walked across the heather of Low Locker Moor to join the Osmotherley to Hawnby road where we turned left to walk back down to the car at Square Corner.
 |
| Low Locker Moor |
As we walked we noticed clouds of smoke on Black Hambleton, too much to be the result of controlled burning and a short time later a fire appliance made its way slowly along the path we had followed up Black Hambleton.
 |
| The last half mile |
 |
| Fire on Black Hambleton |
 |
| They'll never get that up to the Drove Road |
 |
| They can and do |
A short drive took us to Osmotherley and the Golden Lion where we discussed an interesting walk and our first close encounter with a mature stag. We wondered why it was alone in rutting season, had it been defeated and was it licking its wounds when we came upon it lying in the sun?
 |
| To surprise encounters! |
