Arden Great Moor Circular
10.5 miles Fine but cool
A lovely sunny autumn day, cool but with very little wind, tempted us to do this 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.
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| Today's walk from The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills |
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| Osmotherley from Square Corner |
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| "That-a-way, up Black Hambleton" |
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 but following my last post on this walk I was contacted by Richard Histon ,who had come across my blog and gave me a link to the Megalithic Portal which discusses the stone in more detail. There is an interesting page here, but as you will see, mystery still surrounds the stone.
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| Cray Hall Stone - see link above |
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.
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| Hambleton Street |
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| Looking down on Nab Farm to the right and Kepwick to the left |
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| Looks like a repair job is underway |
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| 2.5 miles along Hambleton Street |
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| We reach the site of Limekiln House |
The only evidence of the old drovers' inn is a memorial stone and nearby stood a cross, in memory of Bert, man or dog, we don't know. Someone had uprooted the cross and it was leaning against the memorial stone so we returned it to its rightful place. We left the Hambleton Drove Road at this point to turn left across the moor following a track that quickly leads to Thorodale Valley.
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| Leave the Hambleton Street to follow the green path |
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| Looking back to Limekiln House |
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| Unusual fungi |
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| Our first glimpse down into Thorodale |
This end of Thorodale can be difficult to negotiate in summer because of high bracken but today the bracken is dying off and presented no problem. Thorodale is a lovely valley to explore 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.
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| Clive starts the descent into Thorodale |
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| Nearly at the valley floor |
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| Approaching Thorodale Wood |
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| Walking through North Moor Wood |
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| Approaching Arden Hall |
Just before the final descent to Arden Hall we saw a picnic table, well positioned in the sun, and decided to stop for coffee and scones.As we refreshed ourselves we watched a pair of male pheasants who seemed indifferent to the barrage of shots which started to ring out, we think from Coomb Hill.
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| Coffee and scones |
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| Confrontation? |
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| Retreat is the order of the day |
Finishing our coffee 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. In the past we have sat here for our coffee but the bench is out of the sun and over time has become mossy and uninviting. A cable run has been erected at this spot, between distant trees and set up in a professional manner.
We turned back here but I have included a couple of old views of Arden Hall in case anyone is interested. The hall was built on the grounds of the Benedictine Nunnery of St Andrews, founded in 1148, but all that's left of the nunnery is an old chimney, now embodied into Arden Hall.
TSB says that the name Arden was probably derived from arn, an eagle, and doen, a deep valley - the valley of the eagle.
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| Memorial to three hikers, killed returning from a walk |
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| The rear of Arden Hall |
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| Side view |
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| Front of Arden Hall |
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Clive inspects the cable run
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We walked back to rejoin 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.
