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Route No. 278 - Wednesday 7 January 2009
Hambleton Drove Road, Daletown,
Murton Grange, Caydale, Cleveland Way - 12km
North York Moors. . .
Ordnance Survey route map on
the Landranger series map base.
View the route in Google Earth
Map: Ordnance Survey Explorer OL26 North York Moors Western area at 1:25000
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Car park on the Hambleton Drove Road
Anyway today is the only day that both Jim and I are free of other
commitments so we drove out to a little car park on the Hambleton Drove
Road (map ref. SE509877) at the top of Boltby Bank.
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Yesterday the weather was clear and bright, a lovely crisp day for
a walk and the forecast for tomorrow is the same, but today it is grey
and overcast with drizzle from time to time.
Setting off along the road towards Hawnby
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The ruins of Silver Hill Farm
The ground had a sprinkling of snow with some treacherous icy patches.
We set off along the road towards Hawnby and after about 350m at map
ref. SE513881 we turned left off the road to follow a path across the
fields.
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Well, I've always know it as Boltby Bank but it's marked on the map
as Sneck Yate Bank. We parked there at about 10.00am. The land here
is at an elevation of over 300m above sea level.
Path across the fields from Silver Hill Farm
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Track across Murton Common
When we reached the top of the steep slope down into Gowerdale, the
valley was filled with mist leaving a fascinating scene below.
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After about 850m at map ref. SE512890 we came through a gate and turned
right to follow a track between the fields towards Gowerdale.
Harrows parked at the field edge
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Heading across the fields towards Gowerdale |
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Barn overlooking Gowerdale
Beyond were the tops of the hills just visible above the layers of
cloud.
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There was a sea of mist below swirling round the skeletons of the winter
trees.
The path down into Gowerdale
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Looking into Gowerdale through the mist |
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The path down into Gowerdale
From there we followed the bridleway up to the farm called Dale Town
and continued along the bridleway to zig-zag up the hillside to the
road at map ref. SE536882.
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We just stood and looked for a while before following the path down
to the ruin of Gowerdale House by the stream in the bottom of the valley.
Approaching the ruins of Gowerdale House
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Looking back over Dale Town to Hawnby Hill (centre) and Easterside Hill
(right) |
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The path down into Caydale
It runs around the contour of the hillside from a lovely clear spring
at the head of the valley to the site of a large tank or cistern at
the village of Old Byland. This was the water supply for the village.
The whole channel has been built very accurately starting at around
240m AOD at the head of the valley and ending at around 210m AOD just
about the village after covering a distance of almost 4km from the spring
to the cistern. It is marked on the map as "Old Byland Water Race".
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From the road junction we walked along the road past Murton Grange
Farm and took the path across the fields from map ref. SE535874. This
path led us through Yowlass wood across Caydale and up the far side
of the valley to a sturdy wooden seat bearing the carved inscription,
"The Captains Seat". We stopped here for our lunch with a nice view
across the valley. Just below the seat in a stone lined channel about
400mm wide.
The path down into Caydale
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Path across the fields to join the Cleveland Way |
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The Captains Seat in Caydale
We have used this path several times and there is an other path about
250m to the south that we had not walked before so we chose that one.
It was quite a pleasant route snaking its way between two small blocks
of woodland.
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After our lunch we continued along the bridleway to the road at map
ref. SE531861. We turned right at the road and walked along the road
for about 1.6km to the road junction at map ref. SE514859. There is
a path opposite the junction that crosses the fields to the Cleveland
Way on Boltby Scar.
Walking along the top of Boltby Scar
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View from the top of Boltby Scar |
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Walking along the top of Boltby Scar
After just over 2km we came to the road at map ref. SE507875 where
we turned right and walked the last 200m up the hill back to the car
park on the Hambleton Drove Road.
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From this path we turned right onto the Cleveland Way at map ref. SE507854.
We followed the path along the top of Boltby Scar.
Disused quarry below the Cleveland Way
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The view from High Barn on the Cleveland Way |
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Approaching High Barn on the Cleveland Way
On the way home we stopped at a garden centre cafe in Thirsk where
the coffee and bacon sandwiches made a very pleasant end to our day.
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It had been an interesting walk with some fascinating views through
the mist and low cloud. The whole route had been about 13km and had
taken us four and a half hours to walk including our stops.
At the top of Boltby Bank heading for the car park
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