Rosedale Abbey to Hutton-le-Hole

11:37am Saturday 16th August 2008

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George Wilkinson follows the trail from Rosedale Abbey to Hutton-le-Hole.

HUTTON-LE-HOLE is a good place to wait for the Moorsbus. If you have five minutes to spare, slurp an ice cream; if a little longer, have a gander at the free art gallery in the Ryedale Folk Museum.

We caught an Arts Council collection that included a disconcerting Pizza Delivery Moped by Elizabeth Wright that is a Honda enlarged in metal to 145 per cent of its original size.

We chatted to the bus driver, an ex farmer, about the rain-disturbed harvest, boarded the reassuring Moorsbus at 11.50am and motored round by Lastingham where they had, and these are as rare as raptors on the moors, a display of angels.

At Rosedale Abbey village some fuel, tea and teacake, seemed a good idea because our first mile is up a route parallel to the one-in-three gradient of the road up Rosedale Chimney Bank.

On the up, the ground changes from pasture to golf course to bracken slope. At the top are fine long views up and down Rosedale and of the village rooftops. And here is the railway track that serviced the ironstone mines but this is only for a few hundred yards.

It’s empty on the tops, bar Ana Cross to the south. But it didn’t look dull because the heather already had a good sheen of colour, and should be full purple when you read this.

You might notice a Countryside Stewardship Scheme info plaque, which is interesting for nearby walks. There are a lot of old and new routes across and mainly down Spaunton Moor, it’s a big one, an expanse quite flat but diving steeply off its edges to villages in hollows.

Moors don’t usually have much in the way of stone walls but here there are none and hence no gates and stiles. The reason for this is to be found on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map where Spaunton Moor is described as “Undivided moor common to Appleton-le-Moor, Hutton-le-Hole, Lastingham, Rosedale West and Spaunton”.

Apart from a length of open road, the rest of the walk is through the heather, with big views over Ryedale. These are an easy few miles, fast and comfortable once you’ve done the steep climb and mostly south facing and sunny, should you be lucky.

As the path closes on Hutton-le-Hole, there’s a bit of metalled track and a redundant sign for walkers. Really all such, and they are on moors all over Yorkshire, should have been uprooted when the Right to Roam came in and found a corner in the nearest museum.

Directions

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

Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. From village green pass Abbey Stores and phone box, right to Chimney Bank road, bridge, ten yards, gate on right (sign), by house, steps, stile, uphill over grass.

2. Stile, cross road, stile, track 100 yards and pass golf sheds, turn right over course by double posts (waymarks), 100 yards.

3. Ladderstile and left, 100 yards uphill, ladderstile and left to moorland path uphill through bracken (waymark, fingerpost), stile, grass path/track curves right after 100 yards, via trees to right of houses on the top.

4. Right to stone track, 100 yards, left to disused railway line track to car park.

5. Right to road.

6. Grassy path to right (sign), 500 yards, step over stream, left 100 yards and pass sheepfold.

7. Right to main stone track. Ford, few hundred yards and path levels.

8. Path on left (painted stone and old post).

9. Left to metalled drive, 400 yards.

10. At rock with painted directions, grassy track on right diagonally downhill.

11. Gate to grass and right to road to car park.

Fact file

Distance: Five miles.

General location: North York Moors.

Start: Rosedale Abbey.

Right of way: Nearly all public except permissive path on disused railway line and 100 yards of open access to get to it.

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

Dogs: Legal except for one hundred yards just before you join track of old railway line.

Date walked: August 2008.

Road route: Moorsbus from Hutton-le-Hole.

Car parking: Car park at Hutton-le-Hole, a reasonable £2 all day.

Lavatories: Hutton-le-Hole and Rosedale Abbey.

Refreshments: Hutton-le-Hole and Rosedale Abbey.

Tourist and public transport information: 01845 597426.

Terrain: Mostly moor.

Points of interest: Ryedale Folk Museum is soon to have a room dedicated to the Lyke Wake Walk.

Difficulty: Moderate.

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