GEORGE WILKINSON braves the blistering sun for his Rosedale Abbey to Hutton-le-Hole trek
At Blakey I said to the Moorsbus driver, 'Ralph's Cross please'. 'Ralph's Cross?' he queried.The Met man had predicted the hottest day of the year, and deep in the North York Moors, Rosedale Abbey village was scorching.
I donned my hat and tackled an obligatory short bit of the notorious one-in-three Chimney Bank road, then thankfully swung off to a pleasant lowish valley track, talking about the early harvest and the pretty fields with a nuclear power engineer up for the chess at Scarborough.
It was a solar-powered day, we parted and I had the rest of my climb to do, a steepish fiddle. The slope was once mined for ironstone, there's rusty shale, compasses may misbehave, and a stream is the last chance to soak a sunhat. At the top all is heather until, after a few minutes, you see the only landmark for miles, Ana Cross, tall and proud on the horizon.
The OS map shows no public path to the cross, but its effect is magnetic, routes have deviated, everybody was meeting at Ana's.
Now begins the long, gradual descent over Spaunton Moor, hot and silent and tinder dry, patched bright purple with heather of the bell variety, the rest frosted with the lilac buds of the main crop of ling heather.
After a couple of miles the track dips into lovely little Lastingham. I quickly found a cooling pint at The Blacksmith's Arms, and wandered over to St Mary's, 'the shrine of St Cedd who brought Christianity to this part of England'. Beneath St Mary's, like a church beneath a church, is the unique, amazing, and ancient crypt. Take the twelve steps underground, 'tread where the saints have trod'.
Then a length of quiet valley road before we slip through trees for a good rear entry into Hutton-le-Hole. It's eyes-right for the last few hundred yards, very close are the splendid buildings accumulated by the Ryedale Folk Museum. It was fitting after a hot heather day to pass a heather-thatched cottage and emerge onto Hutton's main street, perfectly placed. Ice cream immediately to your left.
Bus stop and museum to your right. I had half-an-hour's wait but got so engrossed with the much-lauded 'village within a village' and its various niches of old world and work that I nearly missed my Moorsbus.
DIRECTIONS
When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.
1. From Coach House Inn, right to road, 20 yards, left up Rosedale Chimney Bank.
2. Track on left at White Horse Inn (through car park).
3.100 yards after houses on right and shortly after stone 'barns' on left take fieldgate on right by stream. Track uphill, 100 yards, left, 50 yards, fieldgate. Path straight up small bank of heather for 50 yards, dip for 100 yards, cross stream, uphill 100 yards, right (here you see this path continuing down to a barbed wired gate), uphill, 100 yards, stone pillar, continue up, and at top a waymarked post. Path straight on through heather, Ana's Cross soon visible.
4. Ana's Cross then south immediately on track/path (not nearby wide bypass track), cairn after 20 yards, cairns. After about a third of a mile join wider track, cairns.
5. Fingerpost, straight on, track dips, fieldgate, lane into Lastingham. Right at T-junction, road swings right to Hutton-le-Hole (signed, mostly verge), right at junction (signed Hutton-le-Hole).
6. Pass drive to Bainwood on right, 200 yards, ignore roadside fieldgates, grassy track on left (signed footpath), fieldgate, woods and downhill, footbridge with gate (waymark), 11 o'clock and follow fence on right for one field.
7.Stile/fieldgate (waymarks) and straight on, 50 yards to metal fieldgate (do not use) then 2 o'clock (wire on right), 100 yards, stile (fingerpost), 11 o'clock (wire on right), fieldgate/stile, 100 yards, stile on right after thatched cottage, left, skirt shed then left to yard, fieldgate/gate. Main street.
FACT FILE
Distance: Nearly six miles.
Time: Three hours.
Start: Moorsbus to Rosedale Abbey village.
Right of way: The complete route is along public rights of way and usage path.
Date walked: Saturday, July 31.
Road Route: Moorsbus.
Parking: Options include Hutton-le-Hole or Ryedale villages.
Lavatories: Rosedale Abbey village and Hutton-le-Hole.
Refreshments: Inns and caf at Rosedale and Hutton-le-Hole. Inn at Lastingham.
Tourist & public transport info: Pickering TIC 01751 473791 or The Moors Centre, Tel 01287 660654 or on Internet at http://www.countrygoer.org/nymoors www.countrygoer.org/nymoors
Moorbus website
Moorsbus: Change at Pickering for Rosedale only Moorsbus, ten a day.
Last buses from Hutton-le-Hole, 1730 (to Thornton Dale) and 1750 (to Helmsley).
Operates daily until Tuesday August 31, Sundays only in September and October.
Parties of seven or more are asked to telephone in advance.
Map: Based on Outdoor Leisure 26 North York Moors western area.
Terrain: Essentially open moor paths. Steepish 300ft climb.
Footwear: Walking boots. Points of interest: Moor, cross, crypt, and three villages.
Difficulty: Moderate. Dogs: Suitable for dogs, but little water, and keep on leads or under close control.
Weather forecast: Evening Press and recorded forecast 0891 500 418
Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.
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