Yorkshire Walks

This morning my son-in-law drove the two of us to Boltby on the western edge of the Cleveland Hills. We parked in a lay-by on a bend in the road just east of the village at map ref. SE 494865. We walked back through the village about 500m to map ref. SE488866 where we turned right off the road to follow a path across the fields to the edge of the wood at map ref. SE484877.

Boltby village

I had followed the usual track to the edge of the wood, but this time there was a National park sign on the gate proclaiming "No Public Right of Way". This was a puzzle. I had a close look at the map and discovered that the right of way veers off the track to the left about 100m back and enters the wood about 50m higher up the slope.

Climbing up above Lunshaw Beck in Boltby Forest

Track around the top edge of Boltby Forest

On the way up I was disappointed to find that all my old landmarks had gone and a large area of the forest had been clear felled. But after a few moments confusion we were back on track. There was a very cold wind once we were out of the shelter of the trees. We continued around the edge of the woods to join the Cleveland Way at map ref. SE 495901.

I must admit that I had not noticed anything on the ground. In any case it all seems a bit academic because the whole wood is marked on the map as open access land so we continued on our way. We followed the route of the right of way through the wood to map ref. SE 478888 where we joined a track running up the ridge round the edge of the wood.

Track around the top edge of Boltby Forest

34 year old conifer recently felled

We followed the tarmaced farm road down the hill through High Paradise Farm and round the bends to Low Paradise Farm at map ref. SE 501881.

Here we turned right to walk along the Cleveland Way for about 1.5km to the turning for High Paradise farm at map ref. SE 504890.

More snow by the farm road to High Paradise

Farm road from High Paradise to Low Paradise farm

We followed the path across Lunshaw Beck and up a wooded slope to the fields at map ref. SE 500875.

The public right of way goes through the very trim gardens of the farm house and over a stile under a hedgerow arch and out into the fields.

Muddy track up through the wood above Lunshaw Beck

String of horse riders returning to Boltby

Then followed the public road for about 200m back to our car in the lay-by. The whole route had been about 10km and it had taken us (well my slow pace) almost 4 hours including a short lunch break.

We continued on the same path contouring round a steep slope to a farm road at map ref. SE 495867. We crossed the stile onto the farm road and walked along it for about 100m to the public road.

String of horse riders returning to Boltby