A Tour of Raisdale from Chop Gate
7 miles Sunny with cool breeze
It's three years since we did this moorland walk and we thought that today it would be at its best with flowering heather. We parked at Chop Gate Community Centre on the B1257 where there is space for many cars, but since our last visit there has been a charge added to the car park. The ticket machine had a sign saying that it was out of order and donations should be made into the box. No ticket would be issued of course and the word 'donation' would suggest the parking charge is voluntary.
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| Today's walk from The Walker's Guide to the Cleveland Hills |
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| This is new.. |
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| Chop Gate Centre with passive aggressive sign |
After booting up we climbed over a stile at the rear of the car park and followed a faint trail next to Raisdale Beck, across meadows towards Cock Flat Farm. The path stays well below Cock Flat Farm, which Tom Scott Burns says comes from Kyrkflat, denoting Church field. Cock Flat Farm is a sheep farm and there were many sheep and a few rams in the fields nearby.
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| Leaving the car park |
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| Horse field, they weren't interested |
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| Cattle field, they'd made a mess of our access |
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| ... but they weren't interested in us either |
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| Cock Flat Farm |
Our path then wandered through several fields climbing above Raisdale (Reith's Valley, an old Norse personal name) and then a steep climb into tall bracken where we almost lost sight of our track.
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| Raisdale. Fields appeared untrodden |
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| Climbing to Cold Moor End |
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| ... and bracken! |
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| Westcote Farm below |
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| Our path is through the bracken for 400 yards |
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| Over the stile and out of it at last |
When not distracted by the bracken we had fine views across the valley towards Raisdale Mill and above it, Barker's Ridge.
After passing above West Cote Farm and the buildings of High West Cote Farm we dropped down to reach a tarmac lane, just before the well ordered Stone Intake Farm. Immediately after passing its buildings we climbed a stile through a hedge on our left, and descended across a field to Raisdale Road.
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| Raisdale and our path to Barker's Ridge ahead |
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| High West Cote Farm |
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| 'Good doggy, let us past..' |
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| Goldfinch near Stone Intake Farm |
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| Not passive, just aggressive sign at Stone Intake |
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| Stone Intake Farm |
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| Weather vane at Stone Intake |
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| Leave the road at the stile in the hedge |
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| ... and descend to Raisdale Road below |
We turned right to follow the old lane across a bridge. In fact this lane is so old that TSB notes that it is referred to in the 1160 Rievaulx Charters as the 'Red Road', perhaps derived from the red shale in this area.
After a couple of hundred yards we turned left off the road at a sign for Raisdale Mill, originally built by John Garbutt in 1849, which ceased operating in the 1920s.
We walked past the restored buildings, now attractive homes, before turning sharp right into what Tom Scott Burns describes as 'a most beautiful green lane.' Sadly years of motorcycle trail bikes mean it is a green lane no more, however motor vehicles are now banned and so in a few years it might be restored to its former glory.
We now had a steady climb up this 'hollow lane' shown on the OS map as Mill Lane, eventually reaching the top and Barker's Ridge, with the rocky outcrop of Barker's Crag to our right. We followed the ridge to pass by High House and continued climbing until we came to a gate on our left. Here we entered the gate and settled down behind a stone wall to enjoy our coffee and scones in the lee of the wall, with a fine view back of our walk so far.
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| Barker's Crags |
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| Roseberry Topping appears in the distance |
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| Scugdale below |
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| Clive smells the heather and looks down into Scugdale |
This is a 2.5 mile march across the moor which can be a bit of a trudge but today was made more of a pleasure by the lovely smell of flowering heather. About five years ago when walking this stretch we came across old foundations which had been uncovered about 50 yards from the path but today's luxuriant covering of heather hid any trace and we were unable to find it. A Google search at the time showed the foundations were probably from a decoy site built in WW2.
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| Old foundations no longer visible |
The path eventually leads to Head House which we have seen change over the years, from a ruin to a store where game bird feed and equipment is kept. The building is never locked so is a useful shelter but today we kept walking straight through fields above the building. In TSB's map above he shows three stone walled fields adjacent to Head House and in the last corner of the third field we saw the solar powered screen of the earthquake detector we first spotted in early 2017. A large stile has been erected near the detector giving access to it from our path and we crossed over to take a look.
To see more about the detector and to examine its record click on:
Click on 'Real-time Data' in the left column, then in the 'pull down list' on the left choose AT10 Snilesworth, then on the right 'pull down list' for dates, choose the date you want and then click the 'View' button.
After this interesting diversion we resumed our tramp across the moors, dropping down to Arns Gill where we crossed the stream with a jump. The path took us by an ancient rowan tree, fallen but still alive and described in the '80s as 'weathered' by TSB.
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| More bracken to fight through |
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| The 'weathered' rowan tree |
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| Looking back to Head House. The field byond the first wall contains the eartquake detector |
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| A long climb up Trennet Bank |
A long climb up Trennet Bank ended at a memorial stone and a fine view down to Chop Gate. A number of hollow-ways descend Trennet Bank to Chop Gate, which TSB says were worn over many centuries by sledging turf from the moor tops for fuel.
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| Nearly at the top |
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| Memorial stone |
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| Bilsdale below |
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| Chop Gate below |
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| Hollow Lane |
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| Thomas Leckenby sledging turf on Urra Moor, from 'Round and About the North Yorkshire Moors' by Tom Scott Burns |
Hollow lanes are ancient pathways which have been hollowed out over time, very often where peat or turf was dragged down from the moor on sledges. Above is a photograph of Thomas Leckenby of Mount House Farm Bilsdale, leading his sledge of turves off Urra Moor in the early 1930s. The strips of cut turf were dried in heaps called 'rooks' and were used as fuel and for building walls.
These turf tracks led us directly to the car park below, crossing Raisdale Beck by a wooden bridge, and we were soon discussing an interesting day's walk over a pint at the Buck Inn in Chop Gate.
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| "To Hollow Lanes!" |
