Hutton-le-Hole, Rosedale, Lastingham, Spaunton Walk (03/08/2008)

I had an early (for me) start. I had driven the forty miles or so to Hutton-le-Hole and was on Spaunton Moor before eleven: just in time to be soaked in a heavy shower. The heather was just beginning to flower; adding interest to what can be a bleak scene.

I had intended to take a beeline over Access Land, from the point where the trail meets the Rosedale road, to visit Anna Cross. Whilst the cross is quite close, I retreated from the attempt, driven back to the road after floundering in rough and boggy ground.

Chimney Bank was busy with car and cycle borne visitors and a smattering of other walkers. I took the old sled way, associated with long gone iron stone mining, down into Rosedale. The track gets lost in a jungle of bracken in the lower section of the descent at this time if the year but the course is obvious, if a little awkward.

I joined a bridleway which took me downriver. It is a glorious trail through the moor and bracken, staying well above the western bank of the River Seven. The eastern side is thickly forested with the road hidden from sound and view. There were plenty of rabbits about, but I’ve seen deer and a fox in this area on previous visits.

The path passes the site of an Elizabethan glass works, marked by a plaque. A reconstruction of the works can be seen at the Ryedale Folk museum at Hutton-le-Hole. To the untutored eye, however, there's nothing much to see. Like the ironstone industry the remains have melted back into the landscape. It is fascinating to consider, though, that this lonely and peaceful spot was a hive of industry in the sixteenth century and that the whole dale, surely one of the most interesting and scenic of the Moors valleys, was riven by mining and industry up until less than a century ago.

Just beyond Hartoft I left the bridleway to take the Lastingham path over the moor and into the village. Lastingham is a pretty village with a good pub and a fascinating church. I visited neither, but took the steep woodland path up the Tabular Hills escarpment and on into Spaunton.

The geology of the Tabular Hills is limestone, as distinct from the sandstone and shale of the moors. The land is sweet and productive, growing barley and wheat at a similar elevation to much of the lower moorland. The contrast is complete and sudden. From a walker’s viewpoint, however, the interest around Spaunton is entirely in the view across to the moors.

Hutton-le-Hole had got busy whilst I’d been away. Fortunately most don’t wander too far from the cafes and pub and Folk Museum. There had been others walking and some mountain biking, but, for the most part, I’d had the paths to myself.

The walk was about eleven miles, including my aborted attempt to visit Anna Cross, and was mainly on good moorland tracks, but with added interest from a couple of wooded sections. It presented no fitness, foot or stamina problems. I should be increasing mileage on my walks though; the C2C is only a month away.