Yorkshire Walks

Gormire Lake from the Cleveland Way near Sutton Bank

This morning the weather was perfect for walking. Clear skies and not much wind, but I had a couple of appointments that had to be dealt with first so it was about 11am before my neighbour, Jim, and I could set off to drive to the Sutton Bank visitor centre at map ref. SE 516830. It was almost 11.30 before started walking. From the visitor centre we headed north west for a few hundred metres along the Cleveland Way. At map ref. SE 511832 we turned left to follow the path down the escarpment to Gormire Lake. There is a permissive path all round the lake and it's such a lovely setting we did the full circuit of the lake before continuing along the bottom of the escarpment for about 1.5km to map ref. SE 500846.

Roulston Scar and Hood Hill from the hillside above Gormire Lake

The path down to Gormire Lake from the Cleveland Way

A 10cm long leach swimming in Gormire Lake

Gormire Lake

Looking across Gormire Lake to Whitestone Cliff

Swaledale ewe and lamb in the spring sunshine

Heading north towards Southwoods Hall

Pond next to Southwoods Hall

Crossing the sheep pasture behind Southwoods Hall

Gorse in flower

Cattle resting in the spring sunshine

Oak trees on the climb back up to the Cleveland Way

Sticky buds starting to open on the horse chestnut trees

We climbed over the stile and crossed a large sheep pasture to map ref. SE 501849. We followed the path northwest to a farm at map ref. SE 499853. Here the path turned right to follow the edge of some woodland up the hill to map ref. SE 498857. We stopped here for a break and to admire the view. There was a comfy bank to sit on where we could see over the drystone wall and it was very pleasant in the sunshine with a view out to the Yorkshire Dales. We could see the familiar shape of Pen Hill in Wensleydale in the far distance. We could have stayed there much longer in the sunshine looking at the view but we had to get on and we set off heading east up the hill through the woods. We followed the path climbing the hill for about 1km to map ref. SE 507853.

Reaching the top of the climb up to the Cleveland Way

Whitestone Cliff seen from the Cleveland Way

Here we joined the Cleveland Way and we followed it around the edge of the escarpment for about 3km back to the Sutton Bank visitor centre. The whole route had been about 9.5km and had taken us about three and a quarter hours to walk including our refreshment stop to admire the view. We popped into the visitor centre cafe for a cup of coffee and a toasted teacake before heading back home.

Wooden sculpture in the entrance to the visitor centre

The Sutton Bank visitor centre