Ampleforth

11:47am Saturday 14th June 2008

AMPLEFORTH is a village we haven't much visited. We don't know why, because this route just sprung from the map the other day.

We got there early enough and walked the line of houses. The unexpected presence is the traffic. The road is marked on the OS map as being the Caravan Route Avoiding Sutton Bank', and unfortunately lorries use it.

The climb out is up, intimately through a garden, by a beck and on a well-used path through garlic and bluebell woods, so far on what's probably a constitutional for energetic locals.

We reached high pastures and contoured for a while with occasional snapshots down to the houses, a menage, hot tub and tennis court, small birds fizzing in the scrub, crows cruising the open ground and lots of plants, a fair hot haze of colour. Ampleforth's valley is bigger than it seems from driving through, quite a space between the Hambleton and the Howardian Hills.

Then there was a bit more climbing to reach the tops and the rape, barley, wheat and potatoes, in that order of development.

Windmill Farm has trees rather than a windmill and nearby is Beacon House where we were pleased with a path through barley cleared with herbicide. Along the way we'd been thinking that this was a route that could easily have disappeared, the North York Moors National Park Authority has done sterling work with signs and stiles.

There are woods, some are open access, we bypassed those and three miles into the day had almost reached Sproxton, the hamlet on a hill above Helmsley.

Now Hag Lane. It rises through a dozen very evenly spaced contour lines, and once you set your stride it's really pleasant, the dead-end metalling eventually fading to a track.

Our sky darkened squeezing the brightness on to the horizon, heightening the colour of the verges and splattered fat, infrequent, leaf-clattering, dust-kicking raindrops. Bat boxes are set in threes around conifers to tempt the picky creatures.

The high point of the walk, in both senses, is the Studfold Ring. There seems to be argument about the ring, perhaps some consensus that it's Iron Age, a henge rather than an animal enclosure. It's a rounded shape of ditch and earth bank 50 yards in diameter All that's left is a quick drop into Ampleforth, on this we were met by a charming bouncy red setter that seemed to show us the way, ushering us along rhododendron drives.

Directions

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point.

Keep straight on unless otherwise directed. Note wm = waymark

1. West on pavement through Ampleforth from village shop, footbridge with white rails over stream and immediately right (fingerpost AONB) to drive, 25 yards, right of garage, 50 yards, path between hedges.

2. Stile into field and right (wm), 50 yards, stepstream and right, 50 yards, stile (wm), cross track (wm), stile, cross track and by fence (wm), 100 yards, stile and right by fence (wm), stile, cross track, steps (wm), stile and right, gate (sign), stile and contour above village, stile, usage route skirts nettles.

3. Stile, 50 yards with quarry and fence to right, left steep uphill on grass. At top, pair of fieldgates, field-edge path with hedge to your right.

4. Stile and right to road. Stile on left (fingerpost), ignore private stile.

5. New stile on right (wm), cross arable field - path was reinstated, hedge gap, cross field path, stile at wood corner (wm), three stiles and a gap (wms).

6. Round bottom end of wood, stile and right (wm), track, 50 yards, stile on left (wm) into field and by fence to your left. At end of field, stile on left (wm), right 25 yards, stile/fieldgate.

7. Left to dead-end road, 2 cattlegrids/gates (wms), track through yard, fieldgate out (wm), track, fieldgate (wm).

8. Fieldgate before wood and immediately fieldgate on right, 20 yards, left (wm), fieldgate to track into main wood, 200 yards, left to track (fingerpost), left at Y junction (fingerpost Fry Rigg), 200 yards, right before house (fingerpost). At hairpin bend go straight on (wm post), 100 yards, fork right (wm post).

9. Right to road, pass wood on your left, 50 yards, stile on left into field(sign), stile/fieldgate to track (wm), left bend, 50 yards.

10. Stile/pair fieldgates on right (wm), downhill by fence, fieldgate and 1 o'clock (wm), stile/fieldgate (wm), stile/fieldgate to track (wm).

11. From wood corner, 25 yards, path down on right, 50 yards, stile to drive, down and pass house and office, left at drive junction, gates (wm) and right fork downhill into village.

Fact file

Distance: Seven miles.

General location: North York Moors.

Start: Ampleforth.

Right of way: Public.

Map: Drawn from OS Explorer OL26 North York Moors western area.

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: June 2008.

Road route: From York via Sheriff Hutton.

Car parking: Roadside in Ampleforth.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: The White Horse, The White Swan, a café and a store in Ampleforth.

Tourist and public transport information: Helmsley TIC 01439 770173.

Terrain: Valleyside and tops.

Points of interest: Park in Sproxton to avoid the main climb.

Difficulty: Moderate, many stiles.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.

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