Snilesworth

10:09am Saturday 5th July 2008

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Square Corner is a right angle corner on moorland road, a very useful car park and a Moorsbus stop.

At it, we booted up. From it, walkers and cyclists shuttled along the Cleveland Way, with Osmotherley a mile or two one way and, beyond the bulge of Black Hambleton, Sutton Bank the other. Our route is quieter. At first there was hardly a car on the open road, more the cry of curlew and lapwing.

Then the shooters’ track to Osmotherley Moor brought the skim of, at a guess, a merlin, and the first of the day’s many stones. This inscribed Faber’s Stone is also carved with D on the back and an S and an M. Grouse butts sunk deep in the peat were being relined with wood. At binocular distance it seemed new ones were being dug by a caterpillar digger. As far away lay Hawnby and Easterside Hills, their long flanks side by side. By the track, a dozen pond skaters scurried on the surface of last night’s rain. Our moorland miles had been gentle, smooth, and with no gates or stiles.

And no obstructions, except the one voiced in rusty welding on a steel plate that read ‘No Entry’ – this is a museum piece. Anyway, take the back road back now and it’s an easy walk. Or explore a bit more and add in the stones. They were why we were here. A woman from York had written in asking where they were – she had them on a greeting card that located them in Snilesworth and near the road.

We asked the card photographer for details but didn’t get enough, then up popped the stone on this years’ Moorsbus Timetable. The North York Moors National Park Authority kindly gave us the grid reference.

They stand in a tight circle, four intact, one snapped in half, one lying and one missing. They look like gateposts and a couple have old iron gate hangers. The acres around here are littered with such stones, some standing, many in walls, some seemingly bedrock. Have read of them described as ‘mystical’, but prefer Bill Cowley’s take. In his fascinating book Snilesworth, published in 1993 by Turker Books of Northallerton, he includes a photo captioned ’High Cote’ and he jests ‘the Snilesworth Callanish!’, the 5,000-year-old Isle of Lewis ring.

There is one more route option cum diversion of a quite different sort. The other side of a little wood runs Cringle Ing Slack, a beck clear and cold from the moor, and under the arch of a oak tree are deep pools each with room for a dozen skinny ramblers.

Seven pigeons took fright, a rabbit and a stoat ran fast. Over the last mile, the sunshine caught the lovely cotton grass and lit up the Northallerton flatlands framed in the saddle between the Hambleton and Cleveland Hills.

Fact File

Distance: Five miles.
General location: North York Moors.
Start: Square Corner, near Osmotherley.
Right of way: Mostly Open Access, check for any restrictions on www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk
Map: Drawn from OS Explorer OL26 North York Moors western area.
Dogs: Illegal.
Date walked: June 2008.
Road route: A19 then via Osmotherley.
Car parking: Free car park, info board.
Lavatories: Osmotherley.
Refreshments: Chequers tearoom on way to Osmotherley.
Tourist and public transport information: Sutton Bank 01845 597426.
Terrain: Moor.
Points of interest: We saw an unusually worded and inadequately dated access note apparently from the landowners pinned up near direction Number 5, ignore it.
Difficulty: Easy.
Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.

Directions

1. From Square Corner car park, right to road, ¾ mile, stone track on left, two posts and chain after 50 yards. One mile.
2. Stone track on right. Half a mile, stream in dip, 200 yards.
3. Track on right, ignore ‘No Entry’. Pass Walkers Welcome Scheme wood.
4. Left to road, 200 yards, track on right beside wood, 100 yards, stone circle, back to road and left.
5. Road bridge, 50 yards, path on left across grassy area, angle 11 o’clock downhill and near stream, cross side stream, gate, 25 yards, path uphill by wall to your left.
6. Right near waymarked fieldgate to grassy track. Fieldgate. Left to road.

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed. Note wm = waymark