Walking in North Yorkshire

Old Byland to Nettledale and Scawton

7.5 miles Changeable

In The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills, Tom Scott Burns describes this walk as embodying all the charm of Ryedale as it passes through the villages of Old Byland, Scawton and Cold Kirby.

We approached Old Byland from the B1257 Bilsdale road via Rievaulx village and parked in the village, at the roadside close to the green.

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

TSB goes on to relate that 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 finally settling on a site they called Bellalanda, or Byland.

Fox weather vane at Old Byland

All Saints, Old Byland

Resident grass cutters

Walking from the car to the village green we saw the C12th Church of All Saints almost hidden from view behind houses in the north west corner of the village. We decided to start our walk with a visit to the church and found it was unlocked. There are some interesting pagan stone carvings decorating the outer stonework.

Early Norman Dragon

Horned man, possibly Saxon

Easter egg display

Saxon Font

Leaving the church we walked through the village green and just as we exited the village, turned left through a gate into the woods of Low Gill.

House in Old Byland

Wildflowers in Low Gill

Forget-me-nots in Low Gill

Care must be taken when descending through Low Gill, with steep drops to the right

We reach the bottom of the valley

Blossom and wild flowers in bloom

Low Gill gradually descends to Ashberry Pasture, a wild-flower sanctuary maintained by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and we walked through a mass of bluebells and other blooms.

Ashberry Pasture

Masses of bluebells

We joined the Rievaulx to Old Byland road just below Ashberry Hill and followed it to a junction next to picturesque Ashberry Farm.

Outbuilding at Ashberry Farm

Farm buildings

Old North Riding sign near Ashberry Farm

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 uphill into Spring Wood.

Long horned cattle near Hagg Hall

Following the road up Bradley Bank

Hagg Hall

Lakes in Nettle Dale

Wood Anenomes in Nettle Dale

We leave the Cleveland Way...

... to climb alongside 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.

We sat on a convenient bench in front of the church hall and enjoyed our coffee and scones in very pretty surroundings.

Old Rectory as we enter Scawton

We pass by St Mary's Church

... and its image opposite

Fir trees weather vane

Houses opposite our coffee stop

After finishing our coffee we decided to look in on St Mary's Church, which was unlocked and welcomes visitors.

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.'

Altar and to the left the 'sink' mentioned in the text above

Looking back from the altar

In the porch is an interesting memorial to five Free French Airmen who were killed nearby in WW2.

To scan it should definitely read 'to yonder happy shore'

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

Leaving the church we returned to the village green and crossed the grass to an overgrown path behind the village telephone box. The box isn't operational and is in poor repair. Being curious to discover why it has a wooden door we googled for further information and discovered it to be an early K6 model which always had a teak wood door.

The K6 with its wooden door

Our path runs by the side of the telephone box

It would appear that this next section of today's walk is not being used by other walkers and the fields show no sign of tracks. There are waymarks on field boundaries and we aimed for these as we crossed several sheep fields.

We cross several sheep fields

We kept to our path by using the yellow way-marks posted on field boundaries until we descended back into Flassen Dale, which has been recently deforested.

On reaching the valley floor we turned left onto a broad path then almost immediately right to climb up the other side of the dale.

We now crossed more fields to reach the village of Cold Kirby.

Flassen Dale

Up the other side

Cold Kirby

In Cold Kirby, almost the first building we encountered was the Church of St Michael, which Tom Scott Burns explains was rebuilt in the 1800s. It originally dated back to the 12th century when the parish was administered by the Order of Knights Templar. It has an unusual purple ceiling, which seems to continue the purple theme of the stained glass windows.

St Michaels, Cold Kirby

Altar window

Side window

We looked into the village briefly and then followed the Cleveland Way sign to rejoin our path for the steady descent back to Nettle Dale.

The sky grew steadily darker and we heard rumbles of thunder. As we entered Nettledale the storm broke and I quickly scrambled into waterproofs, a nuisance for just the last half hour of the walk.

We hear thunder...

Descending into Nettledale

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 a stream. We now had a steep climb out of Nettle Dale through Calister Wood, until we reached fields on the other side.

The rain lashed down as we followed our path across these field boundaries back to Old Byland, first descending and crossing Low Gill's woods once again.