Boltby

These villages, pretty to a turn, sit among hills and are connected by a maze of narrow lanes, so each twist brings something new for the walker.

A daffodil-decorated track led out and into an unnamed valley of unexpected space. The floor is much given over to game birds. Further off, a mile or two away, hang the limestone cliffs of Boltby Scar.

Soon, at the head of the valley, sunshine was swapped for the cool of conifers. The many waymarks kept the line, even when the path ran along the edge of a felled zone, the route is quite complex but not a navigational crisis. Gurtof Beck cuts deep, the path weaved through bilberry and oak and then touched the lower reaches of Midlife Hill, where once proud trees were felled.

There’s more of this, the felling, a large area of temporary devastation; but this being the Forestry Commission, an example to all landowners, the path was marked up, cleared of branches and laid with faggots of twigs on a boggy bit.

I was still on the up, as opposed to over the hill, and at 1,000 feet reached Windygill Ridge. Enjoy the views from here, tune them with a little deviation onto the open access land and you’ll see west over a great sloping crescent of moorland towards the lowlands.

Windgill Ridge Road, as once named, is a path through moorland that is reverting to scrub, heather with birch and pine. Philosophic-ally, it’s probably all right to be going downhill if you’re picking up speed, and this was the case via sunken paths and birch wood.

An owl glided from its perch, silent even in take off and only a step away. A JCB tractor had to work loud and hard spreading fertilizer on a steep pasture and a pond provided evidence of historical toiling, a flooded brickworks.

But my toil was over for a while. I’d reached the mid-walk tranquillity of Ing Dale, to amble its lane, shared with only a sedate Triumph motorcycle, along the border of the North York Moors National Park, as the sun slid low and birdsong poured from the trees.

At the village of Kirby Knowle, I checked my watch and torch – I’d had a late start, but there were only a couple of miles to go. The thing was, between Kirby Knowle and the car was Knowle Hill and more. The track, and it looks one with historical prestige, just misses this hill but instead climbs the higher Birk Bank. Now one wouldn’t want an end-of-walk crisis on Birk Bank, would one?

As it was, the sunset was good and red, there was a reassuring signpost to Boltby, and a skirt around above Ravensthorpe Manor where the woods have a dominant under-storey of rhododendron.

The hall’s Shetland ponies were up for a cuddle in the falling light. It was tight timing but I do like these sunsets.

Directions

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

Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. Towards western end of Boltby, at mini triangular green opposite bridleway sign, drive 25 yards (sign Gurtof House), white fieldgate to track (no sign), gently uphill, stile/fieldgate (waymark), snickelgate/fieldgate (waymark).

2. Where track bends right downhill, straight on to track, 100 yards (waymark post) then keep to right of wire fence.

3. Stile on left (waymark), diagonally 100 yards to stile into wood (waymark), path 100 yards, right ten yards down bank and over small ditch, left to track uphill (waymark post) 100 yards, path on right downhill (waymark post), 200 yards (waymark post) then by felled area close to Gurtof Beck (waymark post), two small ditches.

4. Cross ditch/side stream 20 yards after waymarked post in fallen tree and about 25 yards from Gurtof Beck to your right, path angles 11 o’clock uphill (yellow dot on tree about 50 yards from crest).

5. Path swings left to follow edge of steep valley side. Wallstile, path skirts to right of mossy area for 25 yards, cross side stream, path 100 yards through felled area, uphill (waymark post) 100 yards, waymark post, cross main track and ditch (waymark post), path across large felled area. Cross grass track (waymark post), bank up into birch, cross grass path, 25 yards (waymark post).

6. T-junction with good path (waymark post), wire fence ahead. Either: right 150 yards to viewpoint from gate to access land. Or: for route, left to the good path downhill, 100 yards, fork right (no sign), path through scrub/moor.

7. Right at T-junction (fingerpost) to main path downhill. Right fork (fingerpost). Gate into field.

8. Fieldgate and left to road.

9. At Kirby Knowle, left to dead-end road on bend, 20 yards, snickelgate/fieldgate on right (sign/waymark), cross field, wooden fieldgate, uphill by fence to your left, gate and uphill through woods (fingerpost Birk Bank), sometimes ruined wall to your right.

10. Ignore track right downhill 100 yards before stonewall gateway. Stay in wood at sharp left-hand bend (fingerpost), 20 yards, right fork (fingerpost Boltby), 150 yards, right fork downhill (fingerpost), 150 yards, left (fingerpost).

11. Leave woods at bench in stone surround via gate/fieldgate on right (fingerpost), by fence, fieldgate on right at corner and immediately left to left-hand gate (blue waymark), by fence as far as corner then left and uphill by wire fence to your right. Fieldgate in corner to track (waymark), right after third fieldgate to rejoin outward route.

Fact file

Distance: Five-and-a-half miles.

General location: Near Thirsk.

Start: Boltby.

Right of way: Public and permissive.

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: March, 2009.

Road route: Various.

Car parking: Roadside in Boltby.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: None.

Tourist and public transport information: Thirsk TIC 01845 522755.

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

Terrain: Hilly.

Difficulty: Tricky navigation.

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