Captain Cook Country from Great Ayton

 

8 miles                Sunny and cold 

 

We  parked on Great Ayton High Street near to Suggitts Cafe and crossed the River Leven by the steel bridge opposite the cafe.  We paused briefly to admire the old pissoir which has been located near the bridge as a non-operational feature and painted red for some reason.  There were originally three of these and to my recollection they were painted a more tasteful green and I remember being glad of their presence when I was a child and used to cycle to Ayton from Middlesbrough.

Leaving the old urinal we followed the river upstream.

 

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

 

The River Leven from the metal bridge

Old Pissoir

Tom Scott Burns says in his walker's guide that Great Ayton was known as Canny Yatton in the local dialect and was once the haunt of  Au'd Nanny, a notorious witch described in Blakeborough's verse, T' Hunt of Yatton Bridge:

Her naals they were lang an' humped war her back

And baith lugs war pointed, her skin ommaist black..

The exceptionally cold morning meant easy firm going through the fields alongside the river and we soon reached Woodhouse Farm, having just passed by a large deer enclosure.  We stopped by the river near the farm to say hello to two geese who are usually at this spot and appear to have survived another Christmas.

 

Roseberry from Great Ayton sports field

Straight over Cross Lane

Crisp going underfoot

Following the river, the deer enclosure to our right

Most of the deer appear to have chosen to remain in their shed

This is the third year we have seen these two geese at this spot

Woodhouse Farm

After the farm we crossed a field containing horses, then a bridge over the river to reach Easby Lane, which we followed through Easby to cross the railway bridge just as the Whitby train passed underneath.

Low Easby

Weather vane at Low Easby

We follow the tarmac lane....

... over the railway bridge

We stayed on the tarmac road for half a mile, carefully avoiding patches of black ice, before crossing a way-marked stile into fields just before Borough Green Farm, to begin a steady climb to Easby Moor.

Leave the lane at this stile...

..cross the field and turn right through a gate

.. past a flock of  Kerry Hills

Welsh hill sheep with their strange panda faces

Climbing to the moor

Reaching the Moor Gate we turned right to follow our path below the moor to Mill Bank Wood.   Entering the wood we walked for over a mile.  TSB says that the wood is named after an old Bleach Mill where woollen cloth was 'fulled' in order to soften and shrink it to a warmer, closer weave. The mill was destroyed on the night of 21st July 1840 when heavy rains caused enormous volumes of water to burst two fishponds at Kildale Hall. A wall of water 40 feet high carried away two stone bridges, a corn mill, sluice gates, an earth dam and the bleaching mill, as it rushed towards Great Ayton.  

We came out of the woods by Bankside Farm and joined the tarmac lane.  We sat on a convenient wall in front of a barn to enjoy our coffee and scones while looking down towards Kildale and the old Church.

 

Through the moor gate

Walking through Mill Bank Wood

Kildale appears below

A long walk through woodland

Time to change their name?

We reach Bankside Farm

Kildale Church from our coffee stop

While we enjoyed our coffee we could hear sheep coughing in the barn behind us and I was able to reach up and take a photo into the barn to show us what we could hear but not see, some pregnant ewes over-wintering in the warm building.

As we left we came to two horses who had been patiently waiting for their turn and Clive fed them apples followed by Jakeman's Throat and Chest lozenges, a Christmas treat!

So that's where the coughing is coming from

Kildale Hall from our coffee stop

"Any apples, sweets... er ... anything?"

Apples all round

We followed the farm road uphill from Bankside Farm until we came to a fork where we turned left to walk through the trees of Coate Moor.  A gentle climb along a frosty path led us to Captain Cook's Monument and we were surprised at the number of Christmas Holiday walkers here and also looking across, on Roseberry Topping.  Good for them!

Logging on Coate Moor

Cleveland Way sign keeping warm

Approaching the monument

Hang Glider at Easby Moor

Captain Cook's Monument

TSB notes that the monument was built in 1827, the foundation stone being laid by Robert Campion of Whitby.  

Walking down from the monument we passed the remains of old workings that is the site of Ayton Ironstone mines, worked by Pease and Partners from 1909 to 1928.  

We took care as we descended through the trees and followed the track to pass some white cottages on the Gribdale Gate road.  

Walking away from the monument to the edge of Easby Moor

Walking past the ironstone workings

Steep descent through trees

Roseberry Topping to our right...

... and Great Ayton below

Passing Gribdale Gate Road

A steep climb followed, up the tarmac track to Aireyholme Farm where there was a fine view over to Roseberry. We could see lines of people climbing and descending the topping.

Aireyholme Farm is famous for being the workplace of Captain Cook's father, who was bailiff there in 1736.

Crossing Gribdale Gate Road to Aireyholme Lane

Weather vane at the cottages

Old farm sign

Duckpond at Aireyholme Farm

The farm buildings

Looking into a barn at the farm we saw a new born calf with its mother, looking warm and secure in the hay.

Our path now took us through two farm gates to Aireyholme Cottage where we turned sharp left after pausing to get our best yet view of Roseberry and its festive hoards.

Lots of walkers on Roseberry Topping

Aireyholme Cottage

Sheep enjoying the sun at Aireyholme Farm

This track took us to Cliff Rigg Quarry, where whinstone was mined.  This hard reddish stone is the remains of a volcanic explosion on the west coast of Scotland about 58 million years ago, and is the only such stone on the Yorkshire moors. 

Cliff Rigg Quarry

Cliff Rigg Quarry

Descending from the quarry we crossed the railway line once more before following the path, usually muddy but today still crisp with frost, alongside Cleveland Lodge and into Great Ayton.

We walked along the High Street, collecting fresh scones from Petch's Pie Shop before popping into the Royal Oak and enjoying a pint of Wainwright Ale.  A good end to a good day's walking.

Alongside Cleveland Lodge

Cheers!

 

The Hanging Stone and High Cliff from Gribdale Gate

8 miles                          Cold and wet

Today's weather forecast was for a sunny day so we expected some good views on this walk, which we haven't done for a couple of years.  The weather forecast was wrong.

We parked at Gribdale Gate and followed the footpath steeply uphill and onto Great Ayton Moor as it started to rain.  In The Walker's Guide to the Cleveland Hills, Tom Scott Burns relates a curious belief from a 19th century book called 'Customs of North Riding' which states, 'Anyone who dares to stand near Gribdale Gate at midnight on New Year's Eve will see an old man pass through the gate and vanish'.    New Year's Eve is still more than a week away so we should be OK today. 

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

Sharp climb to Great Ayton Moor

On Great Ayton Moor

After reaching the moor the footpath followed a dry stone wall with views over to Roseberry Topping which was brightly lit against a stormy sky.  We came to a gate at Newton Moor but turned right just before it. Tom Scott Burns mentions that this is the site of a chambered cairn, part of a complex Neolithic burial site dating from the Bronze Age, roughly 2300 - 800BC, a time when these moors were covered with mixed forest and woodland clearance was beginning to take place. By the Iron Age the site was treeless and cultivation was in progress.  Following the Iron Age, heather had spread across the moor replacing farmland, so the moors have in fact looked much as they do now since that time. 

Roseberry from Great Ayton Moor

Rainbow against Roseberry

Walking towards the end of the rainbow...

Turn right before this gate

After turning right at the gate we followed the moor track through the remains of a conifer wood which TSB describes as 'a corridor of trees rinsed with the scent of pine.'  No more, I'm afraid those trees have gone, like so many more, to the wood burning biomass furnace of the power station.

 

 

Remains of a 'corridor of trees' with High Cliff in the background.

The rain gets heavier..

The path eventually led us to a surprise view of Hanging Stone, which is a massive block of dandstone which TSB believes may have been part of an old quarry.  We needed to pick our steps with care as we descended past the stone as the heavy rain was now starting to make the path slippery.

 

Approaching Hanging Stone

Descending with care

A long steep descent...

... to Hutton Lowcross Woods

We took our time descending though the trees to briefly join a connecting track through Hutton Lowcross Woods, then turning left and descending again to reach Hutton village road.  Turning right to walk along the road we entered Hutton Village which was built as a model village during ironstone mining in the 1850s.  At the end of the village we passed a modern 'eco house' which was being built last time we passed by.  We went through a gate and started to climb to Bold Venture Gill, a name that surely has a mining history.

Entering Hutton Village

Our path lies through the gate ahead, past the eco-house

Once miners' cottages and now desirable homes

We stayed on this track ignoring all turn-offs and once again were surprised at the amount of tree felling.  No longer 'endless rows of conifers' as described in The Walker's Guide to the Cleveland Hills.  A convenient bench near to the nab was too exposed for our coffee stop so we continued under the nab on to Guisborough Moor, where we hunkered down behind a dry stone wall that sheltered us from the wind, if not the rain.  Hot coffee and scones were very welcome.

 

Climbing towards High Cliff Nab

High Cliff Nab

We walk along by the nab to find....

... shelter behind a dry stone wall

Setting off after coffee

Our walk now led us on to the open moor and we looked down to High Cliff Farm.  We then strode across Codhill Heights, 'Cod' being derived from the Viking word 'Keld', which means 'spring'.  As we walked over the moor the rain stung our faces as we walked into the wind.  On our left we looked down into Sleddale which is apparently derived from the old English 'slaed', a wide flat valley.  Soon isolated Sleddale Farm came into view, looking a bleak place in today's weather.

High Cliff Farm

Passing the Cleveland Way path

On Codhill Heights

Sleddale Farm

Sheep at Sleddale

Ram at Sleddale

The ram is disappointed to find the ladies distracted

We tried our boots in Big Dave's footsteps, they were at least size 12 - thank goodness we didn't meet him!

Wearing his white winter gaiters!

We joined a tarmac road that serves as the access road to Sleddale Farm.  After a while we met Percy Cross Rigg road and turned right into it enjoying views in all directions.  The rain had finally stopped and the sun was occasionally breaking through the clouds.

We came to a small fenced area which is the site of several Iron Age huts that were excavated in the 1960s.  We were pleased to see that dense heather which had previously covered the huts had been cut back, giving a much better idea of the layout of the huts.

Percy Cross Rigg

"It's stopped raining!"

The Iron Age Huts

TSB says they date from 800BC to 70AD

Fungi next to Percy Cross Rigg road

We turn left off the track at this sign

We continued along Percy Cross Rigg, which was once a prehistoric track connecting settlements at Eston Moor, Great Ayton Moor and the Crown End settlement at Westerdale, until we reached a gate and information board.  Here there is a meeting of paths which is actually the junction of four parished, Guisborough, Kildale, Great Ayton and Hutton Lowcross, although there is no sign to that effect.  

We turned left here to cut across the moor on a green path with Lonsdale Bowl to our left.  Looking at TSB's map above you will see this is alongside Lonsdale Plantation but this has been felled, to our advantage as we now have a fine unobstructed view of Lonsdale Bowl.

 

Lonsdale Bowl as the sun breaks through

Looking back to Lonsdale Bowl

We were now on our final leg of the walk and we swung away from Percy Cross Rigg to drop gradually back to Gribdale Gate and our car.

Captain Cook's Monument appears on the far horizon

Dropping back to our car

We drove back to Great Ayton where I took a snap of a ringed gull sitting on Captain Cook's statue, unconcerned by our presence. After admiring a Remembrance Day display on the Green we adjourned for a pint in the Royal Oak. Returning to the car half an hour later we were surprised to see the gull still in the same position.

Little respect for the Captain