Kilburn White Horse Circular Walk

   5.5 miles               Fine and warm

A busy week for me with Monday and Tuesday in the Lakes and then this TSB walk on Thursday.  My injured foot is much improved!

This walk is one of the few times where we beg to differ with the start point of a Tom Scott Burns walk.  He suggests parking at the pay and display car park at the information centre at the top of Sutton Bank but we prefer a car park just below the White Horse on Low Town Bank Road, shown as the P below the White Horse in the map below.  This gives a better balance to the walk, we feel, with Gormire lake being reached at the half way point.  The car park is now also a pay and display costing £2.50 for the day.

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

The White Horse from Low Town Bank Road

How the Horse looks from the car park

From the car park we crossed the road and joined a track through woods that then runs steeply downhill, parallel to the road we had just driven up.

At the bottom of the hill the track rejoins the road and here we crossed over to go through a gate with a footpath sign.

The road is to the right of our path

Lots of Himalayan Balsam here

We followed this farm track through the charmingly named forestry plantation of Happy Valley with views up to the cliffs of Roulston Scar on our right. 

Walking through the trees of Happy Valley

Eventually we came to a stile and way mark on our right.  We left the trees here and the path now enters fields and runs alongside a new barbed wire fence. Progress was easy as we headed towards Hood Farm, directly ahead.

Turn right at the way mark and cross a stile

The path leads directly to Hood Farm

Looking over at Roulston Scar from the path

The imposing building of Hood Farm appears derelict with broken windows. There were cattle in the fields and outbuildings however, so the farm must still be in use.

Hood Farm

Cattle on our path but too hot to bother us

Tucking in at Hood Farm

Walking along the farm track towards the A170 we saw a neatly tended grave and memorial stone and next to it a smaller plot, marked with a horseshoe, which one presumes must belong to a much missed pet.

Reaching the busy A170 we crossed to the entrance of High Cleaves Farm, and almost immediately turned right into a field track.  This leads to the little valley of Butter Dale, which TSB says was cut out by the last Ice Age.

High Cleaves Farm

Butter Dale

Following the footpath over a stile, a sharp climb took us to the first lake, at Gormire Rigg.  At the end of this lake we turned right and climbed through trees, soon reaching the waters of Gormire.

Paths are little walked

Cross the stile

We reach Gormire

We followed the lake round its southern shore and came to a perfectly placed bench made from railway sleepers that is ideal for anyone who might want coffee and scones.  Gormire is indeed a very peaceful spot, possibly because it takes some effort to reach. We enjoyed our break and the only life we saw was a pair of ducks who soon joined us at the bench.  

Time for a little something

A peaceful view

"May we join you?"

Mmm, scone!

There are two terraces around Gormire and TSB explains that these were once shorelines when the lake was much deeper.  It is often described as bottomless but is actually about 27 feet deep in the centre and covers around twenty six acres.  Tradition has it that a town stood here which was destroyed in an earthquake, but the lake is actually the result of a glacial overflow channel being blocked by a landslip, hence its position up a hillside.  No streams flow from it and its waters are mainly supplied by rain and diminish with evaporation.  A major landslip happened here on the 25th March 1755 which was described by Rev John Wesley as 'like many cannons or rolling thunder'.

Leaving the bench we followed the lake path anti-clockwise.  It was at this spot six years ago that we saw a rare Golden Pheasant. Despite our quiet approach, sadly there was nothing to see today and we soon reached the steep climb to the top of Whitestone Cliff.

Golden Pheasant in 2018

Starting the long climb

About half way up..

Looking across at Hood Farm and Hood Hill from the climb

After twenty minutes we reached the top and turned right on the path, signposted Sutton Bank.  We now had a ridge walk of about 1.5 miles along the top of the escarpment and in today's clear skies were able to enjoy good views into the Vale of Mowbray. 

Clive cooling down after the long climb

Looking back down to Gormire and the Vale of Mowbray

We reach the A170

Where the old path has been diverted

Health and Safety

The Battle of Byland took place here

Looking across at Roulston Scar from the cliff top walk

WWII Memorial

Looking back, Gormire now distant

TSB explains in The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills that during the last Ice Age, glacial sheets unable to override the Cleveland Hills swept round both sides of the moors, carving out the great cliffs at Gormire and Roulston Scar.  

To our left we now watched the activities of gliders at Sutton Bank.

A small plane towed the gliders up, one after another.

There goes another one..

We walked past the Yorkshire Gliding Club and then past Roulston Scar to reach the top of the White Horse.  The car park lay just below and we descended steps alongside the Horse to reach it.

On top of Roulston Scar

The top of the White Horse

Steep descent to the car park

A short drive took us to the Forresters Arms in Kilburn, which is open all day and where we sat outside in the sun to discuss the short but pleasant walk.

New bench at Kilburn

To the White Horse!

Two Days in the Lakes

Day 1  Aira Force and Gowbarrow

Day 2  Angle Tarn and Hayeswater from Hartsop

Maps and some photos here

 

Stonegrave and Caulkleys Bank from Nunnington

7 miles                              Fine and dry

This is the most southerly walk in Tom Scott Burn's book, The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills.  Set in the gently rolling Howardian Hills this route would be graded very easy and the going is good underfoot. 

We approached Nunnington on the B1257 from Helmsley and parked in a lay-by opposite Nunnington Hall, next to the river.

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

The river in spate - note the head just appearing bottom right

We walked on to the bridge over the River Rye and looked down to see the river in spate, branches and debris floating downstream. I took the above photo and as I put my camera away Clive spotted an otter swimming below us. I grabbed my camera but too late, the otter dived out of view with its powerful tail showing above the water for a second.  I was sorry not to have photographed the otter, the first we have seen while walking, but on looking at my photos later I saw that I had caught him without realising, in the bottom right of the above photo.

Otter!

We stood on the bridge for a few minutes but the otter didn't resurface in our view so we set off walking into the village.

Tom Scott Burns explains that the name Nunnington is derived from the old English personal name Nunna and not from the Saxon nunnery that once stood where the hall now stands.

Nunnington is a very pretty village with streets laid out in a grid formation.  All the houses are decorated in the same pale green and cream paintwork.

The Old School House

Neat streets

As we passed Nunnington studios we paused to admire the weather vane which we were once told is a life sized memorial to a much loved dog, a spaniel called Percy.  Apparently the spaniel was a real character who led a very independent life, doing exactly what he pleased.  At the other end of the village is a small copse of trees named after the dog and known as Percy's Plantation.

Life size weather vane of Percy

Leave the village by the gate near Bridge Cottage

Leaving Nunnington at Bridge Cottage we walked for about a mile alongside the river which recent rain has swollen.  We watched flotsam rushing downstream.  Eventually we crossed a small bridge over a beck and here we turned sharp left and walked away from the river into fields.

River Rye

As usual with TSB walks, paths are little walked

Turning away from the river

After walking through several fields we turned left onto the tarmac of High Moor Lane and after a hundred yards or so turned right at a signpost to return to fields.  

Dropping towards Stonegrave

After half a mile or so we dropped down to reach the busy Malton road and the village of Stonegrave.

The Minster comes into view

Houses in Stonegrave

Crossing the busy B1257 we followed the wooden sign to the rear gate of Stonegrave Minster, England's smallest minster.

TSB explains that Stonegrave is derived from steinn-gryfia meaning a 'stone cleft', and that there were important quarries of building stone to be found here in the Middle Ages.

Approaching the Minster

Stonegrave Minster

Have you been putting it round that we're barmy..?

After coffee we entered the Minster, which is invariably left open for visitors, and admired its Celtic Cross which dates from the 8th century.

Celtic Cross

Medieval stone coffins

Altar window

  

Leaving the Minster we walked past the old manor house and crossed back over the Malton road to join a grassy path that veers left from the road to climb Caulkleys Bank.

The name Caulkleys is a corruption of 'Chalk Lands' and in The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills one reads that the terrain here consists mainly of rich deposits of reef limestones and detritus known as Coral Rag, all pointing to the marine origins of this hillside.

Leaving the Minster

We think this might be a walnut tree

Stonegrave Manor House

Looking down on the old manor house as we climb..

... Caulkleys Bank

A thatched house in Stonegrave

Reaching the top of Caulkleys Bank we walked along the grassy ridge and after passing Caulkleys Wood we had fine views in all directions. 

We followed the ridge walk for about 2.5 miles: at its highest  point it is marked by a trig point.  TSB says that no less than 22 towns, villages and hamlets and sixteen churches can be seen from here.  We didn't check.

Log seat on Caukleys Bank

Hovingham from Caulkleys Bank

The Trig Point

Eventually our path began to lose height and we reached the houses of the tiny hamlet of West Ness, where we passed an old Wesleyan Chapel, long disused.

Caulkleys Bank ridge walk

Caulkleys Lane approaching West Ness

The Wesleyan Chapel dated 1836

Just past the chapel which was built in 1836, the path leaves the road and rejoins the River Rye.  We walked alongside the river for about 1.5 miles to reach Mill Farm.

Rejoin the river path at West Ness

Follow the river to..

...  Mill Farm. The old mill building is on the right

We were amused to see a sheepdog apparently at the wheel of an old tractor.  It seemed to be using it as a kennel.

Sheepdog driver

TSB says there has been a mill here since Domesday and the present mill dates from 1875.  Until 1950 the mill race powered a generator providing electricity for Nunnington Hall.  The mill race was looking very dramatic in today's flooded river.

Another view of Mill Farm-

The mill race is very dramatic today

Continuing alongside the river we reached Nunnington Hall, where the screeching of peacocks can be heard. This was owned by Sir Thomas Parr in the sixteenth century so it's possible that Catherine Parr, Henry VIII's last wife, played in the village as a child.

Nunnington Hall

We emerged on to The Avenue and went back over the bridge to the car.  There is no longer a pub in Nunnington so we called at Helmsley Brewery and sat in their bijou beer garden where we discussed today's walk over a pint of Yorkshire Legend.

To Tarka the Otter!