frank'sYORKSHIRE WALKS
My Walking Diary
These Diary pages are just a few notes and pictures of the routes I walk. I hope that they give you some ideas for walks of your own and if you need more details of a particular route you can use the route request form to contact me
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|
21 March 2002
|
Another lovely
spring day as we drove to the village of Fangdale Beck in Bilsdale,
about 12 miles north of Helmsley. We parked next to a footbridge
over the stream, and set off on a path that heads north out of
the village for about a quarter of a mile to Stone House - a recently
renovated range of farm buildings and two cottages. At Stone House
we took the path up the wall side to climb up the valley side
towards the Bilsdale mast (TV transmitter) that dominates the
view for miles around. 
The
path is not well used and much of the way we simply kept to the
direction shown on the map until we came to a bridleway that also
climbs up the moor from Fangdale Beck (this is a much easier path
to follow and is the one that we would normally use, but we fancied
a change to-day). About a mile and a half from Fangdale Beck the
bridleway meets the track that runs along the moor top from Moor
Gate at the end of Hawnby Hill all the way passed the mast and
passed Cock Howe above Chop Gate to Barkers Ridge. It's a very
useful track that features in many of our walks in Bilsdale. This
time we turned south following the dry stone walls around some
rough pasture land and passed the ruined farm at Low Thwaites.
We stayed on the track for another mile and a half to Moor Gate.
A couple had just pulled off the road as we reached the corner
and asked our advice on picnic spots. We suggested that here was
not at all bad. At Moor Gate we turned east to cross the valley
on a wooden footbridge and join a rough track that slowly climbs
the moor heading northeast back towards Fangdale Beck. After about
a mile and a half the track begins to turn round towards the north
and just at this point beside a dry stone wall separating the
moor from some rough fields we took a track continuing northeast
for a quarter of a mile to go through a gate into the sheep pasture
that has grown over the site of a disused quarry - it all looks
very pretty with the rounded spoil heaps covered in cropped grass.
We followed the path down thw hill to the lane and back into Fangdale
Beck. The whole route was about 7 miles and took us under 4 hours
including a couple of stops for a break in the sunshine.
