Feeling flat, GEORGE WILKINSON heads to Hawnby for a choice of hills and a modest incline.

HAWNBY is a good start if you are feeling flat, with its choice of lovely hills. We sat outside the Hawnby Inn, wondering which of the two hills to climb. Dave, the proprietor, said Hawnby Hill was easier.

Fluorescent cyclists wheeled past, walkers lingered in the sunshine and we ambled off along the back road between Hawnby Hill and Easterside Hill, still undecided. The hills are sugar loaf in form or, if you’re unfamiliar with such, shaped like ingots.

The valley was full of the rich scent of freshly cut grass. We watched the urgent sequence of the harvest, the hoovering of the grass, the shuttle of the tractors and the stacks of bales wrapped in pale green polythene.

By now we had decided on Easterside Hill, and took an old green lane, a worn and sunken route untroubled by modern machines, down to Ladhill Beck where the scrub is good and where, at tumbledown cottages, untended apples and pears were laden with thousands of tiny fruit.

Easterside Hill, at its northern end, stands on a fringe of moor. Again, our path was sunken, so the purple in the heather was concentrated at eye level. And now the big views start, up Bilsdale and down Ryedale, for near here these valleys join.

We had yet to climb the hill, had merely circled it. It is steep, but the path is a nice steady incline. Halfway up my navigator stopped to graze bilberries and I puzzled at a vigorous but lacy plant with tendrils that turned out to be the white climbing fumitory.

Over the other side of the hill, near Hawnby, there are generations of oaks, from saplings protected by sheaths, to trees in their tall prime to a broken ancient. Visitors are tended as well and we stretched out our day in the village tea garden where Sonia told us of the local two-toothed snails.


Directions

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

1. From Village Hall, right to road, left uphill, right-hand bend (sign Osmotherley), mostly verge.

2. Fieldgate on right (sign No Vehicles…) into field, downhill near fence to right in sunken path. After step-stream path angles left, gate, gate.

3. Footbridge, left uphill 50 yards, right across small field, bank boundary, 50 yards, left uphill 100 yards.

4. From above ruin, uphill 50 yards to gateway/track bridge and left on track, gateway, by wall uphill.

5. Small gate near ruin to moor. Left five yards, right on narrow path by gully then in gully/sunken path until it ends. Right to path to angle towards wall, right to path.

6. At wall, near tree and gap filled by gate, left by wall, on good path. Round right-hand corner. Pass old fingerpost.

8. Stile on right (wm) 200 yards before road and 5 yards off path. Path in bracken 100 yards then path up and over Easterside Hill (wms). Stile (wm), by fence in field, right at corner, stile/gate.

9. Cross road, gate (sign), diagonally across field, left at second pole, 150 yards, step into trees.

10. Stile/gate on right and immediately left in wood, path 150 yards, stile, downhill, ford on left and immediately right, 100 yards, stile, footbridge (wm), across field, gate (wm), 11 o’clock, gate to road in Hawnby.


Fact file 

Distance: Five miles.

General location: North York Moors.

Start: Hawnby.

Car parking: Village hall, honesty box.

Right of way: Public.

Date walked: August 2013.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: The Inn at Hawnby and the Hawnby Tea Room.

Tourist information: Helmsley TIC 01439 770173. Map: OS Explorer OL27 North York Moors western.

Terrain: Hill.

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.