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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8
July 2003
 Our lunchtime view from a seat at Spaunton |
Today
my neighbour, Jim, and I drove to Sinnington. It's a pretty village
on the river Seven which flows out of Rosedale. We began walking
just after 9.30am. The weather was cloudy but dry with no rain
forecast until the evening. Our intended route is pretty and varied
with woodland, farmland, and open moors - the snag is that the
route straddles the two OS 1:25000 maps of the North York Moors
and it straddles the centre fold of both maps so it's a real pain
to navigate. We took the lane to the church at the north eastern
end of the village (map ref. SE 746861) and followed the bridleway
northwards for 1.5km to map ref. SE 747876. Here we took the bridleway
down the bank to our left for 200m then right to the footbridge
at map ref. SE 748880. (Yes - there is a bridge there even though
it's not marked on my OS map). We turned north again to follow
the path at the foot of the bank between the woods on 
our
left and the cornfields on our right. In the far corner of the
field ahead of us was a large round steel vessel billowing smoke
from four metal pipe chimneys. As we got closer we realised it
was a charcoal burner in action and there were still a few logs
on the ground around it. It would have been very interesting to
find out more about the process but there was no one around to
ask. We continued on the path to the road at Lower Askew (map
ref. SE 744896). We continued on the road for 250m and took the
track straight ahead on the crown of a left hand bend in the road.
We walked up the track for 600m to the point where the track emerges
on to the open moor. Here the track forks and we kept to the left
hand fork for about 1km to map ref. SE 739915. Here a footpath
crosses the track. There are no real landmarks you have to rely
on the small cairns 
marking
the path. We turned left to cross the valley of Tranmire Beck.
The path crosses the beck at its confluence with Grain Beck and
continues on to the Lastingham Millennium Stone at map ref. SE
729909. We kept to the path around the intake wall for about another
kilometre to the road near Spaunton, map ref. SE 721903. We headed
south along the road towards Spaunton village. Part way up the
hill there is a seat in the wide grass verge with a lovely view
over the moor where we stopped for our lunch. After lunch we continued
up the hill passed Grange Farm and on to a track called Spaunton
Lane. We continued down this track for about 2km to map ref. SE
724878. Here we turned left on to a track called South Ings Lane
leading to Appleton-le-Moors. Part way along the track there were
a group of 7 or 8 ewes and lambs. Of 
course
they ran ahead of us as we approached. They had the same blue
colour identification mark on their backs as a flock we had passed
a few kilometres back in a fenced pasture, so they were probably
escapees. The lane led straight out on to the road in the village
so we decided to hide behind the hedge in a gateway in the hope
that the sheep would come back down the lane. After a few minutes,
much to our relief they came quietly passed our gateway and we
were able to continue on our way without driving them out on to
the road. The track came out opposite the church in Appleton-le-Moors
and we turned right on to the road and walked south through the
village. At the bottom of the village the road turns sharp right
but we continued straight on following a bridleway to map ref.
SE 736868. Here we took the right hand fork in to the woods 
and
followed the track round the bend in the River Seven on top of
a high bank. The track gradually dropped down to just a few metres
above river level and at this point we saw the brilliant, almost
luminous blue of a kingfisher as it darted from under the bank
on our side of the river to the cover of some thick bushes on
the oposite bank. We continued along the river bank back in Sinnington
village where there was a group of five water colour artists with
their easels painting the view up the river Seven like the photo
at the top of this page. The whole route was just under 15km and
took us four and a half hours including our stops.
