Plaque in Kildale to mark the spot where John Wesley peached in 1772

This morning we drove to Kildale on the northern edge of the North York Moors and parked in the village at map ref. NZ 606092 at about 9.40am. We set off through the village, passing a stone marker where John Wesley is said to have preached in 1772. Just through the village we turned right at map ref. NZ 611095 up little lane that climbed up through some pleasant woodland to Warren Farm.

At the farm the path turned right down the side of some trees by the farm buildings and went down the side of a little valley past the disused chinmney of an ironstone mine. We climbed out of the valley and crossed Kildale Moor and began to drop down towards Baysdale. At map ref. NZ 632078 we turned right to follow the path round the outside of the intake wall to map ref. NZ 627076 where we turned left to drop down across the fields to Baysdale Beck. We crossed the beck and followed the farm road up to Shepherd's House where we took the path to the right of the farm buildings into the woods.The path emerged from the woods on to the moor on a stone grouse shooters' track. We followed this track across the moor for about 4km to Armouth Wath at map ref. NZ 619034. There is a public right of way roughly along the track for most of the way but there are two or three lengths of a few hundred metres where strictly we were exercising our new-found "right to roam".

Disused chimney at Warren Moor ironstone mine built in the 1860's, but the company went bankrupt before the mine went into operation.

Huge bed of mint at the edge of the woods next to Shepherd's House

Path through the woods above Shepherd's House

View from Battersby Moor over Captain Cook's Monument and Teesside

From Armouth Wath we followed the track across the moor to the Cleveland way at map ref. NZ 604061. We turned right on to the Cleveland Wat and followed it for about 4km back in to Kildale to the car. The whole walk had been about 18km - a bit too far for me these days but the last 3km were easy down hill on an even surface. It had taken us five and a quarter hours to walk in the pleasant autumn sunshine. We stopped in Great Ayton on the way home for our traditional stop at a tea shop to round off the day.