Hazel Head to Arnsgill and Cow Ridge

7 miles                                      Cold and sunny

We approached Hazel Head Car Park via a 6 mile drive along the unclassified road from Osmotherley, as suggested by Thomas Scott Burns in The Walker's Guide to the Cleveland Hills. The road was icy and very narrow, making progress very slow and on reflection we think a better route would have been along the B1257 to Helmsley, then to Hazel Head via Hawnby.  This would have been only slightly shorter but a much better road.

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

Leaving the car park we walked back along the road into the pretty valley of Blow Gill.  At the roadside immediately opposite is an old lime kiln, the first of several we saw today.  Continuing uphill from Blow Gill we turned sharp left into the gateway of Street Gate Farm. Our path ran to the side of the farm building and quickly became very boggy. 

Blow Gill

Lime Kiln at Blow Gill

Blow Gill

We leave the road at Street Gate House Farm

Street Gate House Farm

Passing by two fields of sheep we saw a dead sheep in each field and then reached Hagg House, where there was a pen containing a dozen spaniels who set off a terrific noise, howling and barking at us as we passed.  Hanging from a line were lots of small traps, obviously there is a hunting enthusiast at this farm.  The path continued straight on, relentlessly boggy and we came upon a third dead sheep at the side of the path.  What had caused these fatalities?  Although today was beautiful weather without a cloud in the sky, it was cold and the ground was icy and still below zero at this height; perhaps the cold had finished off sickly animals. We passed by Birkwood Farm where we were thankful to rejoin the road for a moment.  I have marked this last stretch on the map above and unless there has been a long dry spell I would advise sticking to the road from Hazel Head all the way to Birkwood Farm.  The footpath we followed was situated well below the road and water was constantly draining down from woods and fields making a swamp of the track. 

Frozen grass makes a good alternative to mud

Hagg House

Fallen Sheep, muddy path

Climbing out of the mud at Birkwood Farm

After climbing to the road at Birkwood Farm we admired a pile of beet, probably winter feed, then turned right past another lime kiln for a hundred yards, before turning left onto a farm track to Hill End Farm.  Here we admired a crude 'post box' manufactured from an old container and nailed to the farm gate.   As we passed by Hill End Farm we saw yet another lime kiln.  TSB describes how many farms in this area had their own lime kilns, the lime being used for lime washing walls but also for spreading on the land, a custom dating back to Roman times.  The acidic moorland soil is neutralised by the lime allowing more varied crops to be grown.  The burnt limestone is reduced to calcium oxide or quicklime which was spread at the rate of 2 tons an acre.  

Sugar beet

No post today!

Hill End Farm ahead

Crossing Arns Gill

Gated footbridge over Arns Gill

Hill End Farm's lime kiln

Our path passed by the side of the farm and we climbed towards Arnsgill Ridge after going through the moor gate.  As we reached the Ridge we saw a couple of flat rocks ahead that would just do for a coffee stop, and we relaxed with our coffee and scones with not a breath of wind to ruffle us.

Moor gate

Coffee in the sun

We set off again, now on a shooters' track and headed straight along Arnsgill Ridge for a couple of miles until we reached Head House.  Clive and I passed by here a couple of years ago on a rainy day, Head House was then a ruin and provided us with shelter of sorts while we had lunch, but today we saw that someone has been renovating the building.  The roof had been re-tiled and windows and doors added.  It was secured only with a hasp, however, so is still available should shelter be needed.  We looked inside and saw that a lot of work was still required if it was to be habitable again.

Approaching Head House

We admire the improvements

New roof inside

Approach to Head House, 4 wheel drive a must!

This marked the farthest point of our walk and we crossed Arns Gill again and walked back up to Cow Ridge, heading back parallel to Arnsgill Ridge.  After little more than a mile we came to a cairn which marked the area known as Iron Howe, where there are the remains of enclosures and cairns dating back to the the Bronze Age.  These just appear to be lumps and bumps and piles of stones but it is obvious that they are not a natural landscape.  TSB says that these remains were left by the 'Beaker People' and there are a lot of burial mounds on the moors in which the earliest pot drinking vessels, or 'beakers' have been found. 

Stating the bleedin' obvious

Cow Ridge

A trap (mink?) set across a stream on Cow Ridge

Cairn at Iron Howe

Bronze Age remains

We started to walk from Iron Howe downhill towards Blow Gill.  We had superb views towards Hawnby Hill and Easterside Hill in the distance, with mist lingering in the valley beneath.  We followed our path past the strangely named Scotland Farm, spotting the old Wesleyan Chapel on the left where we stopped for lunch a couple of months ago when we walked 'Hawnby Hill and Hazel Head from Hawnby' (see 2nd October). One of the interesting things about TSB's walks is that they cross the Cleveland and Hambleton Hills, each hike bordering on the next so that one can make sense of the landscape.  

Easterside Hill and Hawby Hill, mist below

Joining the farm track at Scotland Farm

Scotland Farm

Unusual name for these parts

Wesleyan Chapel

We walked up to join the road and turned left to recross Blow Gill and walk up to our car.

Back down to Blow Gill, ground fog in the distance

Blow Gill

Hawnby Hill

 

Coomb Hill and Dale Town from Hawnby

5.5 miles  Wet, grey and misty

We intended to park by the church at Hawnby, but turning left at Hawnby Bridge came upon an accident between a 4x4 and a van which had blocked the road.  No-one was hurt but we took the female 4x4 driver to her brother's farm near Hawnby and situated on the road we would now need to take to reach the church.  She told us her brother would clear the road with his tractor so we left her at the farm and continued to the church where we found the ground too wet to park.  We decided to return to the Methodist Hall car park in the village and walk from there.

 

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

 

We walked down from the village towards the River Rye and All Saints Church which we decided to look around before our walk, while we were still clean.  The church was open and we went inside to find a very well kept church.  The most interesting feature for me was the beautiful stained glass window in memorial to the German aircrew that had been killed when their plane crashed at nearby Pepper Hill, the site of which we passed a couple of weeks ago when walking Easterside Hill.  Another very attractive window showed the parable of the seeds falling on stony ground and another side window showed St George and St Stephen.  

 

All Saints in the mist

Memorial to German aircrew

Some fell on stony ground...

 

Leaving the church we rejoined the road and crossed Church Bridge before turning right into fields at a signpost marked Arden Hall.  Although the path climbed through a field of cattle we bravely marched onwards before noticing the bull.  Now taking a more circuitous route we passed to the side of some cows and calves before leaving the field and heading towards the woods at Coomb Hill.

 

 

Church Bridge

Leaving the road

Climbing towards Coomb Hill

Our presence is noticed

 

Our indistinct footpath skirted the woods of Coomb Hill, eventually doubling back on itself and depositing us at a tarmac road where we turned left towards the gates of Arden Hall.  We could just see the building through the mist.

 

 

Climbing towards Coomb Hill

We enter the woods

Arden Hall

 

Once we had passed the Hall gates the road became little more than a farm track, although an old but newly painted Yorks North Riding road sign pointed along it indicating Kepwick.  Immediately in front of the road sign was another saying 'Unsuitable for motor vehicles'.  We now began a steep climb of nearly a mile until we reached the site of an old quarry.  Here we found a large boulder by the side of the road which made an ideal seat, so we adjourned for coffee and scones.

 

To Kepwick, but...

Our road becomes a track

 

A long climb...

 

Setting off once more we turned left off the track almost immediately and climbed a track onto Dale Common.  It now started to rain in earnest and looking back we saw nothing but mist,  in sharp contrast to the last time we walked here in the summer of 2013, when we had fine views down to the lake behind Arden Hall.

 

Today's view

Summer 2013 from almost the same point

These are the views you should get as you climb onto Dale Common

 

Our view became poorer as the mist descended but we knew we had to continue across Dale Common until we came to an old water tank, where we turned left.  Our faint path took us across several fields until we reached an old building used as a shelter by cattle and shown on the map as Old Barn.  Our path near the building had been turned into a sea of mud so we decided to skirt the building to the left, our route bringing us back to the path beyond the building and near to some tumuli.  Tom Scott Burns tells us these are a group of bronze age tumuli, one of which was excavated in the 1850s and found to contain the skeleton of an Anglo-Saxon lady of rank.  She wore a leather girdle round her waist with a gold clasp inlaid with a cross of garnets and her hair was secured with gold and silver.  

 

On Dale Common

Turn right at the old water tank

Towards Old Barn

We emerge near tumuli

Looking back across tumuli to Old Barn

 

We walked on towards Sunny Bank Farm and noticed a sign pointing sharp left which said, "View Point" and "Clean path for dog-walkers."  We remembered from last time that this was the path we should have taken when we instead walked on to the road beyond Hawnby.  This badly signed path actually leads to Hawnby Church so we set off across the fields going steeply downhill.

 

 

Hawnby Hill comes into view through the mist

Faint path downhill

A yellow waymark keeps us right

Looking down to Church Bridge

 

Church Bridge came into view but Hawnby Church remained stubbornly hidden amongst the trees.  As we reached the bottom of our descent we saw an ancient tractor parked outside a hut and going down for a better look discovered another inside the hut.  We reckoned they must be from the 1950s and would be well worth renovating. 

 

 

Fordson Major Diesel

 

One more gate to negotiate and it was a muddy one, then across the River Rye on a footbridge and we joined the road to walk back to our car.  A very short drive took us to the Inn at Hawnby where we enjoyed a pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord and were able to supply the bar staff with all the details they required about this morning's accident.

 

 

Negotiating the mud

Footbridge near church

Hawnby