Saturday 12 February 2005
Wass Bank, Scawton, Flassen Dale, Claythwaite Rigg (monks' trod) circuit - 14km
Map: OS Explorer OL26 North York Moors Western area at 1:25000

Looking over Old Byland to Hawnby Hill

Path through the woods at the top of Wass Bank	We are planning to have some building work done at home, so this morning we had to wait in for the plumber to call to look at his part of the job to give us a quotation. It was almost 10.15 before we could set off to drive to the top of Wass Bank, map ref. SE 561806. We made our way through the plantation to the main road (A170) at map ref. SE 551818. Here we turned left to walk along the road for about 400m. The traffic here is fast and there's plenty of it, but fortunately there is a reasonably wide grass verge to walk on clear of the traffic. At map ref. SE 547819 we turned right off the road on to a walled track between the fieldsand into another plantation. The track took us to the Scawton road at map ref. SE 547827. We walked along the road into Scawton and called in the pub, "The Hare" to book for Sunday lunch tomorrow. In the village opposite the church and next to the telephone box we turned left on to a footpath over the fields to Flassen Dale, map ref. SE 537837.
We sat on a bank in the trees out of the strong cold wind for our lunch. After our break we continued down Flassen Dale to join the Cleveland Way at map ref. SE 549845. From here we followed the Cleveland Way past the duck shooting/ angling ponds to the road at map ref. SE 563844. We continued along the road to map ref. SE 569843 where we turned right off the road onto a track up the hill. The track is the route of the old monks' trod from Rievaulx Abbey (about 1km north of here) to Byland Abbey (just at the bottom of Wass bank). We climbed up the hill on the monk's trod to the main road (A170) at map ref. SE 559817. We crossed the road and took the path through the woods about 100m to our right to take us back to our starting point. The whole route was about 14km and took us Just over 4 hours to walk including our short lunch stop.	Old English Longhorn cattle at map ref. SE 567844
Looking down Nettle Dale	Stepping stones on the Cleveland Way
Signs of spring - Hazel catkins	Signs of spring - wild honeysuckle in leaf
Moss covered oak beside the path	Observation/shooting seat tied to a tree
Signs of spring - snowdrops in full flower	Abandoned road roller
Rievaulx Abbey from the monks' trod	Looking to Rievaulx Terrace from the monks' trod
Part of the monks' trod at map ref SE 562830	More damage from the recent storms
In places the monks' trod is just a sunken track . . .	. . . and in places it is being ploughed out

Herd of farmed red deer near the A170