Hawnby to Helmsley

10:56am Saturday 9th August 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

HELMSLEY market square was packed with stalls, as it is every Friday. Locals and tourists were circulating and, it being high season, the square was lined with Moorsbuses. “Passengers for Hawnby, this one here, please,” ushered the Moorsbus Marshall.

We boarded the 10.40am 16-seater and got chatting to Helen and Barbara, from Hull, who told us of the walks that way, and to Jean, from the States.

When the bus pulled into Hawnby, it was all change. The women headed off to do a route around the hills, we were headed back to Helmsley. That is after an outdoor cup of tea and a scone at the tearooms, where they fought the good fight but the Post Office pulled out. An Audi with the numberplate 1 MEX murmured off; the Mexboroughs are the local landowners.

Refreshed, we left from a road signpost that reads ‘Helmsley 6¼’, on our footpaths it’s a bit more. A heron wafted over the River Rye that was clay coloured from the night’s rain.

This river falls 200 feet to Helmsley, but there were a few warm climbs and it turned out that the cows were pessimistic about the day. The sun it shone on the lovely hills, and of those hills the most distinctive, Easterside and Hawnby, have thanks to Helen, a new shape description – like “upturned boats”. Perhaps she sees a swell of woods, waves of valleys and becalmed pastures. It was quiet, especially so for the time of the year.

We surprised a crow and it gave four guttural calls and then everything knew we were in the river valley. A raptor slipped over to the other side to hold a position high above one of the Hag Woods.

There are duckboards for a length of the walk just next to the river and a traipse through pastures of long grass. Then the single arch of Bow Bridge and a lead in by a canal. The monk’s canal is now dry and their Rievaulx Abbey ruined, but as you approach and then pass they are the most striking, enormous and complex remains.

But since my last visit to Rievaulx, the reasons to stop have increased with the building by English Heritage of a café with a free view of the arches.

Refreshed, we refused to consider cheating with the Moorsbus for the last few miles. A clean stream joined the muddy Rye at Rievaulx Bridge, a Cleveland Way sign informed that Helmsley was two miles, but again not all downhill as water flows.

And the steamy woodside tracks were hot and sticky, so it was a welcome breeze to turn off for a hundred yards to the deserted medieval village of Griff. We sat on the curved ditches and meaningful mounds that were trimmed to neat short grass by clean fit sheep and enjoyed the views far and wide. Griff was given by Helmsley’s lord to the monks at the founding of Rievaulx in 1132.

An interlude of 40 stone steps down and the same up interrupted the glide down, otherwise we came in past golden wheat, sleek horses, impudent colour of thistles and more fat lambs. And the goal is arresting, of Helmsley Castle, its moat and Ryedale.

Back at Helmsley, we bumped into Helen, Barbara and Jean again and in the short spaces between the Moorsbus movements we swapped good-day snippets and smiles.

Directions

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

Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

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

1. Left from Hawnby tea shop, right at road junction, over bridge, stile on left (sign), 1 o’clock up bank and by trees, stile, cross field, stile (waymark), pass fingerpost and contour and ignore track uphill.

2. Stile/fieldgate, 2 o’clock uphill to stile/fieldgate (sign), cross road, stile/fieldgate (sign), uphill, stile into wood (waymark), path zigzags 100 yards via waymarked post.

3. Left to track and not as signed by 2-way fingerpost. Old gates near end of wood.

4. Fieldgate, 50 yards, left to track downhill (3-way fingerpost) for 150 yards.

5. Right before fieldgate/cattlegrid and across field (no sign), gateway, pick up grassy track/path to contour, the right of two fieldgates, path, stile/fieldgate and right to path.

6. Stile by wood (waymark), 11 o’clock downhill via line of trees after 150 yards then by fence and trees to your left (waymark post). Stile in fence (waymark).

7. Gates into farmyard (waymark), right behind house to track (waymark post), fieldgate, drive. Fieldgate into yard, cattlegrid/fieldgate on right to drive (waymark), uphill then down on metalled drive.

8. Fieldgate on left (waymark) to path through field, duckboards by river and steps and stile.

9. Fieldgate (sign) and left to track, stone bridge over River Rye, 300 yards, gate on right, steps, ten yards, left to track for 200 yards, gate by river and stay by fence to your left (waymark post), gates (waymarks).

10. Right to road in Rievaulx, pass Abbey. Left at junction (sign Helmsley 3). As road goes uphill elevated footpath to side (fingerpost).

11. Track on right uphill (sign Cleveland Way, Helmsley 2).

12. After small disused quarries look out for plaques for Countryside Stewardship Site and take track on left 150 yards to fieldgate to site of medieval village of Griff. Return to route.

13. Cross track after lodge (fingerpost), becomes path by wood, gate into wood (waymark), 50 yards, snickelgate (sign), steps down and up, snickelgate to path by wood (waymark), turns left uphill (fingerpost), snickelgate (waymark) to field edge track, snickelgate, snickelgate. Join road in Helmsley and right then second left into Helmsley marketplace.

Factfile

Distance: Eight-and-a-half miles.

General location: North York Moors National Park.

Start: Hawnby.

Right of way: Public.

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

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: August, 2008.

Road route: Moorsbus from Helmsley: every day to August 30, Sundays to October 26.

Car parking: Roadside or pay and display at Helmsley.

Lavatories: Helmsley and Rievaulx Abbey.

Refreshments: Hawnby, Rievaulx Abbey and Helmsley.

Tourist and public transport Information: Helmsley TIC 01439 770173.

Terrain: Valley.

Points of interest: New Moorsbus route.

Difficulty: Moderate.