Tuesday 22 February 2005
Byland Abbey, Wass, Mt Snever Observatory, Oldstead
Hambleton Hills - 8km.
Map: OS Explorer OL26 North York Moors Western area at 1:25000
Route Map on 'Landranger' base map from OS Open Space service
Open this route in Google Earth

Byland Abbey

Byland Abbey	This morning we drove just a few miles from home to Byland Abbey and parked in the lay-by at map ref. SE547786. The car parks next to the abbey are reserved for visitors to the abbey and patrons of the pub, the Abbey Inn. It was a bright crisp winter's day with a few short heavy snow showers. We walked along the road to the abbey and took the path across the fields to Wass from map ref. SE 550790. At the road in Wass we turned left to follow the track up through the woods for about 1.5km to the edge of the woodland at map ref. SE 540805. Near the top of the climb we came across a ewe hopelessly entangled in a briar patch. We managed to free it and it ran off still trailing several lengths of briar from its fleece. About 200m farther on there were two more ewes entangled in a some hawthorn scrub but their panic as we approached along the path freed them without any intervention by us. From the edge of the woodland, the path continues to Cam Farm, but we turned left to follow the wall around the edge of the woodland to map ref. SE 539805. The snow had drifted behind the wall to a general depth of about half a metre, so it was quite hard going. In the deep snow it was quite hard to spot the track we wanted off to our left through the snowy woods to Mount Snever Observatory at map ref. SE 537805.
We sat on the bank in front of the observatory for our lunch. There was a lovely view out through the snow covered trees to the snowy fields beyond. After our break we set again down a steep path directly in front of the observatory which emerged onto a forest road and brought us to a public footpath at map ref. SE 534807. Part way along the forest road a Roe deer bounded across the road just a few metres in front of us. At the footpath we turned left to follow the forest road out to the public road in Oldstead. After another 100m we turned left again on to a path that took us across the fields, along the edge of a wood to the road at map ref. SE 533798. At the road we turned right to walk up the road for about 150m to turn off on to the path to Oldstead Grange. We followed this path across the fields back to the road near our starting point. The whole route was about 8km and took us nearly 3hours including our break at the observatory.	Mount Snever Observatory
Looking back to Byland from Wass	Ewes tangled in a Hawthorn bush
A lovely day for a walk in the snow	A lovely day for a walk in the snow
Snowy woodland near the observatory	Snowy woodland near the observatory
Byland Abbey	Byland Abbey
Starting the climb out of Wass	Crossing the fields from Oldstead

Inscription on Mount Snever Observatory

View from Mount Snever Observatory