Kilburn (From York Press)

Kilburn

8:10am Saturday 13th March 2010 in

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THE White Horse of Kilburn doesn't gallop across the south western escarpment of the North York Moors, it looms, especially when you’re at its car park and it's there above you, thick and headless. A visitor said with disappointment “It’s grey” and indeed it must have suffered the hard winter.

But we weren’t here for the horse and it wasn’t warm enough for the ice cream van and so we set off away through the birch and pine and under the larches. A pond was examined for the joy of frogs, but nearby Gormire Lake is the scene for this. Anyway we had more elevated intent – Hood Hill.

This is the conical, or cornet-shaped hill, conifer clad, with a topping tuft of sycamore, you see from the top of Sutton Bank. Have often fancied it and, climbing done, it was exciting to see the summit against the sky. A notice forbade digging for bits of a Halifax bomber that crashed in 1943. A medieval castle once commanded this point and Hood Hill has an Iron Age pedigree. James Herriot wrote in 1979 that the aforementioned outlook from Sutton Bank, a mile away, is the “finest view in England”; well, this compares. Ivy Scar blocks the sky to the east otherwise the stand-alone hill connects a huge amount of distant countryside from an altitude of 800 feet. Do pick a clear day.

A neat path has been fixed across the top to protect the remains, and then our way runs beautifully along a ridge and Kilburn shows up below. The descent is through woods to a pond, a large one spooky with dead flooded birch.

The return to the horse was eventful. Certainly you get regular sightings of the famous animal and from relatively flattering angles. Also we saw two wild deer.

I must mention the boggy bits, the best of which is a black peaty path through a reed marsh where a wader flew; the worst a squelching length, tightly hemmed to a shaggy hedge by ten-foot fencing.

This fencing looks weird and the walker's bridges to get over it look worse, like something lifted from a railway station, in rough timber. It's a deer farm, pretty deer.

Now, today's walk is short but not unenergetic, so by the time you reach the last half mile it's nice to have a boost. Which is that you don't have to walk up the hairpins of the narrow back road that drivers use if Sutton Bank is shut to traffic. Instead a nice path runs above the road in Forestry Commission Open Access land making this 450-ft climb pleasant. So thanks to them for this and for the access to Hood Hill, enjoy the cornet.

Fact file

Distance: Four miles.

General location: North York Moors.

Start: Kilburn White Horse.

Right of way: Public, and Forestry Commission Open Access forest.

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: March 2010.

Road route: Various.

Car parking: Free car park below White Horse, SE514812.

Lavatories: National Parks Sutton Bank Visitor Centre.

Refreshments: Forresters Arms, Kilburn and Mouseman Visitor Centre Café.

Tourist & Public Transport Information: Sutton Bank Visitor Centre 01845 597426.

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

Terrain: Hill.

Difficulty: Moderate in clear weather.

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

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

Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. From car park, barrier to track, 20 yards, fork left above picnic area to grass/mud track, ignore side turns (ignore white arrow on green post). 2. Fork left downhill (white arrow), path becomes gravelled at corner (arrow).

3. Right to main track at junction (arrow), left fork to track (arrow).

4. Path on left at corner (white waymark and arrow), uphill. Ignore arrowed fork on right. Steep uphill 100 yards. Fork right to narrow path uphill between stumps.

5. Path swings sharp left uphill. 6. Path turns right and 200 yards to top. Some steep drops. Follow made-up path and steps over top to ridge path south.

7. Right at junction with hillside path (not in direction of arrow), 100 yards, path swings right and down through old woods. Ignore grass path contouring between trees on left, carry on downhill. 8. Ignore a good path on right with an arrowed post.

9. Track/path on left above and beside pond, faint path on right at end of pond, cross stream, left to road.

10. Stile/fieldgate on left (sign), 11 o'clock through valley, right-hand bend, through dip, fence to right, fieldgate. NB Careful here as dangerous broken up reinforced concrete laid to left of field-edge track, 150 yards.

11. Pair of fieldgates on left (waymark), cross field, stile, 1 o'clock, stile, footbridge, 1 o'clock through marsh, footbridge, 1 o'clock.

12. Stile/fieldgate, and immediately left to stile (waymarks) between deer fence and hedge. If this absurdly boggy then use other side of hedge, a wire to cross. Over deer fence bridge, cross field to gated deer stile.

13. Right to path then drive, gate by fieldgate, left to road, 100 yards, path on right parallels road up to car park.