Words & Photos Ian Battersby

September 20 2011

This route was born out of frustration and ensuing stubbornness. I had long yearned to walk the length of the western
escarpment of the North York Moors from Roulston Scar to Osmotherley in a day trip. I assumed the return could be made by bus, but frustratingly the timetable was far too limited.

Digging my heels in, I waited for the longer days of summer, devising a looping circular route encompassing the majority (and best) of the scarps, returning through fingering valleys further east. It was to be the kind of frustration I like. Larks lifted, singing from soaring stages in a boundless cobalt sky, while warblers delivered their eternal summer serenade from a more relaxed position among the uppermost leaves of a wealth of trees. I looked down sheer wooded slopes to a pair of wood pigeons who were surveying the distant rise of Pennine hills and a patchwork of pastures beyond Gormire’s encircling scarf of oak. Taking their lead I copied them, sitting on a prominent projection above the sheer face of Whitestone Cliff to watch jackdaws yakking and circling below me, flying from sinewy birch trees clinging to feeble ledges.

Cushions of bilberry smother the top where South Woods give up the climb from the vale. I followed the sweeping scarp, circling to Boltby Scar’s grey limestone splashed with a vivid pallet of lichen. Above it larch trees cower away from the edge as if preparing for another squall, and looking west I saw the early stages of an embryonic front ready to wreak more havoc. Mature sycamores at High Barn appear to fare better, but even they shy away from the drop.

A pair of dunnock fled as I entered the confi nes of Boltby Forest, and a squirrel bounced across the path like a ball of fur, disappearing up the far side of a nearby trunk. A yellowhammer beamed in sunlight, releasing its melodic “little bit of bread with no cheeeeese” and a roe deer eased across the path, butterfl y nose and eyes gleaming for a startled second before bounding into the darkest forest.

I moved from the woods to an open moor filled with curlew crescendos and the indignant cries of lapwing. Around Arden Great Moor skies paled then greyed over a view that reaches around the moors to the fl at tops of the Tabular Hills. A valley of walled pastures sweeps down and away, growing more thickly with trees as it rounds out of sight, but it wasn’t to get away. I quickly caught up, dropping into its charming blend of wood and meadow, and for the next few miles I rippled through steep-sided valleys of open hawthorn scrub, before climbing onto pasture and striding south past a tempting short cut to Sutton Bank. Tired limbs carried me on to Kilburn White Horse and Roulston Scar for a final gaze into the haze of a strengthening storm.

Distance: 23.5 miles/37.5km Ascent: 3450ft /1000m Time:11–13 hours Start: Sutton Bank (GR: SE 515830) Maps: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer sheet OL26 (North York Moors – Western area); OS 1:50,000 Landranger sheet 100 (Malton & Pickering, Helmsley & Easingwold) Tourist Information: Thirsk, 01845 522755 Public Transport: Moorsbus service 128 from Scarborough to Sutton Bank operates on Sundays and bank holidays from April to October and daily from Monday 4 July to Saturday 1 October.

Technical Spec
Cleveland Way north-west to Whitestone Cliff . Continue on Cleveland Way north to Boltby Scar. Descend north to Sneck Yate Bank. Cross road, continuing north along Cleveland Way passing High Paradise Farm en route to Dale Town Common, Steeple Cross, and Whitestones on Arden Great Moor (11km). Take tracks clockwise around edges of Arden Great Moor to North Moor (5km). Track west veering north-west (1.5km). Follow path generally south into North Moor Woods. Bridleway east-south-east then south to lane after Arden Hall. Track then Bridleway east-south-east through Coomb Hill woods to lane. East-south-east 250m then second lane south for 150m. Path and bridleway south climbing to lane above Dale Town. Lane and bridleways south to Cold Kirby (3.5km). Cleveland Way south-west to Hambleton Inn. Lane south to Kilburn White Horse. Cleveland Way north rounding Roulston Scar.