GEORGE WILKINSON enjoys a mix of industry and countryside when he climbs to admire the view at Eston Nab.

ESTON is on the borderline, a chunk of houses and green set in the edge of industrial Teesside where the Cleveland Hills rise steep, and this makes for a very dramatic walk to a rare 360-degree viewpoint.

Parking is at the Flatts Lane Woodland Country Park which was cheerful with dog walkers and the ‘Trim Trail’ provided the first leg of our route. The next bit is woodland and then comes a steady climb.

But this is more than just a ramp to a view, and where the heath levels we looked to explore a little and found in the trees a big pond with a boggy skirt over which many dragonflies were mating in what entomologists call the ‘tandem position’.

We headed for the nab that stands extra proud these days with communications masts that are antennae for Teesside spread over the plains; the industry glittered, on a bright, brisk day, from the turbine decorated sea to County Durham.

The opposite half of the view is all country, heather and heath, to the Cleveland Hills and towards the moors.

We sat on cliffs of sandstone and pulled out binoculars. The mouth of the River Tees is close and upriver the rare mechanism of the Transporter Bridge was clear. In 1850 ironstone was found in the Eston Hills and the bridge is from the days when Teesside, or rather Middlesbrough, framed the empire with iron and steel.

Next to Eston, just a mile or two from the nab as the kestrel dives, is a block of chimneys, tanks and pipes, the Wilton Chemical Works, once owned by ICI, and similarly an economic power house.

My mum worked there as PA to a boffin and apparently she was the ‘Queen of Wilton Castle’, and perhaps a prototype Dulux Girl, but I’ve never seen the pictures.

The boardroom at Wilton Castle looked out not to their works but the countryside and that’s where we headed and it was nice and as the sun hit the tall pale grasses of the scrub my navigator said ‘lion country’. More certainly, Roseberry Topping showed splendidly sharp.


Directions

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

1. From car park, uphill on Trim Trail path, 200 yards, at bench/bin take short path on left, (sign) fence gap. Right to ‘pavement’ of busy road, 50 yards, cross road (sign), fence gap, steps into wood.

2. Left to good path (wm in brambles), 50 yards, ‘gate’/stile (Eston Nab), wide path uphill, ½ mile with stile/gate (wm).

3. About 50 yards after right-hand bend, fork left uphill. After 300 yards, at minor paths crossing, optional path on right 200 yards to pond, then back. Pass Carr Pond, fork right for main track to Nab. On the top, left to stone monument and best views from crags, take care.

4. Good track downhill, pass masts. Left at junction to track (wm).

5. Pass waymarked path on left, ten yards, unsigned grassy path on right over open ground then wood-edge beside fields.

6. Left to track at wood corner, 50 yards, fieldedge track to left of wall, fence gap, stile, cross track, downhill, stile (wm).

7. At corner of wood, track on right (wm), left-hand bend, downhill.

8. About 20 yards before fieldgate, slightly overgrown path on right into wood (wm), pass Mill Farm/pond, 2 footbridges.

9. At felled area, gate on left into field, immediately right, 100 yards, stile/gate and immediately left (wm), stile/gate (wm), stile/gate (wm) into wood, stile/gate into field and 11 o’clock over large grass field, stile/gate into wood, track.

10. Right to track just before road, rejoin outward route.


Fact file

Distance: Five miles.

General location: Cleveland Hills.

Start: Flatts Lane Woodland Country Park.

Car parking: Free at country park.

Right of way: Public.

Date walked: September 2013.

Lavatories: Country park.

Tourist information: Visitor centre 01642 459629. Map: OS Explorer OL26 North York Moors eastern.

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.