Walking in North Yorkshire

Old Byland to Nettle Dale and Scawton

7.5 miles Cool and fine

Tom Scott Burns describes this walk as embodying all the charm of Ryedale as it passes throught the villages of Old Byland, Scawton and Cold Kirby. We approached by the B1257 Bilsdale road via Reivaulx village and parked in the village at the roadside close to the green.

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

All Saints Church, Old Byland

Fox weathervane at Old Byland

Tom Scott Burns describes how in 1143 the Norman baron Roger de Mowbray granted land in Ryedale to some wandering monks from Furnace Abbey in Lancashire. They moved about the dale for a few years before settling on a site they called Bellalanda, or Byeland. We walked through the village, passing All Saints Church on the left of the green but decided that we wouldn't visit the church today as we would visit churches in Scawton and Cold Kirby that we hadn't seen before. We walked away from the church and as we left the village we bore left through a gate and into the woods of High Gill. The track was badly overgrown and thick with nettles and gradually descended to Ashberry Pasture, a wild-flower sanctuary maintained by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. The path through the woods and pastures was little used and wet, even though we have been enjoying fairly dry weather, and either side of the path was thick with white garlic flowers and bluebells.

Descending into High Gill Woods from Old Byland

Low Gill

The path becomes more defined

Wild garlic and bluebells make the path colourful

Negotiating a wet bit

We joined the road below Asberry Hill and walked to a road junction by Ashberry Farm which looked very peaceful in the morning sun, and even our voices failed to disturb a sleeping collie 'guard dog'!

Colourful cherry blossom below Ashberry Hill

Ashberry Farm

Let sleeping dogs lie

Duck pond at Ashberry

We turned right over the bridge at Ashberry farm and followed the Scawton road past Hagg Hall, leaving the road at Bradley Bank and following a woodland track as it meandered through Nettle Dale. Three large man made lakes were to our right and stretched along most of our track through Nettle Dale until we reached a footbridge and Cleveland Way sign on our right. We tuned left here and walked into Spring Wood.

Hagg Hall

Nettle Dale from the road near Hagg Hall

One of three lakes in Nettle Dale

We turn left away from this sign

Entering Spring Wood

Our path went through Spring Wood until we reached a tarmac road which we followed into Scawton, which is Norse for farm in the hollow. On our left was the Church of St Mary and we found it unlocked so we entered for a look around.

We leave the Flassen Dale path to climb steadily to the road

The sign tells us we are on the Inn Way

Church of St Mary, Scawton

The 12th cenury lavatorium on the left wall

I was interested to see a memorial to a memorial to five Free French airmen in the porch, who had been killed near this spot in WW2.

Outside we wandered through the old gravestones continuing our quest to find the bleakest Victorian epitaphs.

With restless days and sleepless nights, This weary frame was sore opprest, Till God the silver cord unloosed,
And gave the heavy laden rest

Bright angels beckon me away, Then mother dry that tear,I go from night to endless day, Say woudst thou keep me hear (sic), I know thou wouldst not mourning then, Thy daughter's early doom, Thy loss is her infinite gain, She lives beyond the tomb.

TSB says that the church was built by the Cistercians of Byland Abbey owing to the divers perils and fatigue which the parishioners underwent in coming from Scawton to Byland, and as we had suffered similar divers perils we adjourned to a bench on the village green and enjoyed our coffee and scones before retracing our steps across the grass to an overgrown path behind the village telephone box. We now left behind recogniseable paths for a while and crossed fields using the yellow waymarks on field boundaries as our guide, until we descended back into Flassen Dale, turned left onto the path then almost immediately climbed up the other side of the dale.

Church weathervane at Scawton

The telephone box and our path are just visible behind the spreading branches

Overgrown path leaving Scawton

Towards Flassen Dale

Entering the woods of Flassen Dale

Bluebells in Flassen Dale

Descending into Flassen Dale....

... to the road then a quick right turn....

Leaving Flassen Dale we walked straight across several fields to reach Cold Kirby. Our walk veers right just before the village but as we hadn't visited the village previously we continued to the green and the church of St Michael. The church had been rebuilt in the 1800s but originally dated back to the 12th century when the parish was administered by the Order of Knights Templar. We certainly felt there was an eastern influence when we entered the church and saw the bright purple ceiling which would not be to everybody's taste, we thought. A tray with coffee, tea, kettle and water were set out for the use of visitors, a very nice touch but time was pressing so we didn't take advantage of it.

St Michaels, Cold Kirby

Unusual colour scheme

Tea or coffee?

Youth see this as you pass by, Has (sic) you are now so was I, Repent in time make no delay, For in my prime I was snatch (sic) away

And she is gone who we so dearly loved, Whose tender kindness we so often proved, Yes she is gone her happy spirits fled, And now she is numbered with the dead

Church of St Micheal, Cold Kirby

We looked into the village briefly and then followed the Cleveland Way sign to rejoin that walk back to Nettle Dale.

Cold Kirby

The Old School House, Cold Kirby

Follow the Cleveland Way!

We are sorry to see a copse of ash trees felled, perhaps because of Ash Die Back disease?

A novel bird scarer in a farm field

Descending into Nettle Dsle

Back in the wild garlic

We return to the three man made lakes of Nettle Dale

At Nettle Dale we parted from the Cleveland Way as we reached the lakes, turning left into a field and crossing to a gated bridge over the stream. We now had a steep climb out of Nettle Dale through Calister Wood, until we reached fields on the other side. Our path now ran straight across these field boundaries to Old Byland, first descending and crossing High Gill's woods again.