Today, tree of us drove to map ref. SE 609903 opposite the phone box about 7km north of Helmsley on the road through Carlton towards Bransdale. We started walking about 9.45 on the path beside the phone box over the fields to Lund Farm. The path goes to the north side of the farm and just beyond the farm we turned right to head south west to map ref. SE 621902 on a narrow tarmac lane. We turned left to head north passed Birk Nab Farm and on to an old green road. The farmer was out with his dog and we couldn't make out what he was doing. The dog seemed to be running into the flock of sheep and breaking them up instead of gathering them together, but in a few moments all became clear. He was isolating one particular ewe that was very lame and as soon as the dog had brought the ewe within reach the farmer grabbed it, sat it on it's bum and began to trim its feet with a very sharp clasp knife. He was very friendly and commented on the lovely weather, but he declined to give my friend's toe nails a trim. We continued along the green road for 1km to map ref. SE 624921 and turned right onto a path that crosses a green road called Little Roll Gate and then goes across the moor on an odd curved path. There is a well defined path on the ground but it doesn't follow the path on the map. The path on the ground goes to map ref. SE 631925 at the wall corner and you can follow the wall round to map ref. SE 634926 to rejoin the path where it enters the wood. On the map the path in the wood follows the ridge down the end of the spur to the river, but be careful at the top where it is very boggy. We kept just to the south side of the ridge where a track which leads down in the right direction. There is a new wooden footbridge over Hodge Beck and after crossing the bridge we climbed the path to Ankness ridge and on through the farm yard at Ankness. We followed the footpath up the valley to the footbridge back over Hodge Beck by the weir at map ref. SE 626945. We climbed up through the woods to the ruined farm at map ref. SE 623945. From here we took the bridleway up to the Little Roll Gate green road at map ref. SE 615947. This path gives some lovely views up to the head of Bransdale that you miss if you stick to the stoney track up from the ruined farm. We turned south along the green road to map ref. SE 618933 where we turned right and continued up to the road at map ref. SE 607929. We crossed the road and made our way across some rough heather to the farm road to "Old Kiln" We took the path down the side of Old Kiln and crossed Bogmire Gill to climb about 100m up through the woods to a forest track at map ref. SE 602921. We turned left on to the track and followed it for about 1.5km to map ref. SE 607906, where we joined a footpath along a farm track over a footbridge back to the road about 100m from our starting point. The whole walk was about 13km and took us four and a half hours including a couple of stops in the sunshine.
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Walking down to Hodge Beck from Ankness	Spring lambs near East Moor Wood
Leaving East Moor Wood	East Moor Wood