Cold Kirby

Mee also called it an "out of the way spot", but these days the National Park Visitor Centre at Sutton Bank is just a couple of miles away. The village can't have changed in appearance much in the past 60 years, and is simple, not bleak, being two parallel rows of each a dozen old stone detached houses and farms. The rows are separated by wide verges and the road stops at the far end, at a church.

We walked out on to the back fields, which dip slightly across the fade-out top of a valley. Further down, we could see people waving flags: it was going to be a sporting day. But for a while, we had views to the Hawnby Hills. A ragged ash tree hung on, its dark pointed buds hopefully as hard dormant as nails. Thorn hedging led across the pastures to a little bit of back lane and the lane to the top of Tanker Dale.

Here were parked a Mule 3010 and a RTV 900, upsized quad bikes which were the main traffic hereabouts. Soon they were in action, ferrying beaters up the valley's steep stone track as we went down it. There are exposed rock layers.

Within a few minutes, we joined the bigger valley of Nettle Dale, and here were the guns, in special tweeds. A wounded pheasant was struggling away up through the trees, but it was neatly retrieved by a spaniel and a Labrador; a man walked up with fresh French partridges.

The valley is deep, and offered such a very sheltered mile; there is a curve called Blind Side and watchtowers fixed to trees. In the lull, birds sang. Coal tits were low and fearless, but six geese kept a tight formation, high enough to be barely audible. Strangely, as if there had been flurries of snow, pale feathers were snagged in bushes.

The junction of Nettle Dale and Flassen Dale is halfway through the walk. Here is the most water, namely Grass Keld Spring, which is clear and steady and runs into fish ponds downstream and then to Rievaulx Bridge.

Otherwise, Flassen Dale is like Nettle Dale, mostly dry, occasionally running with a seepage or resurgence. And there is more than something of the Wolds dry valley shape, the bottoms flat and wide, the sides cut at 45 degrees, although here the flanks are forested with conifer or broadleaf.

By the by, for the first quarter mile of Flassen Dale you are on the Cleveland Way, which, unlike our route, was well signed.

A nervy thing happened where the conifers hemmed in high each side of the track. For every step we took, wood pigeons peeled out with a clatter. We generated a stream of birds, the valley sky held thousands, more feather snow.

For mile after mile along these dales, next to the track, was a metre-wide sprinkling of bird food, including maize kernels.

Still in the deep, we passed a felled area that must have been ablaze last summer with fireweed, then a coppiced length and then a steepish climb to get out to the tops again. Back in Cold Kirby, a sheet on a line was horizontal.

Directions

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

1. East through village, left fork at green and bench, drive on left at Ailred Barn (signed bridleway), through yard, gates, into field (waymark), fieldgate to track curving downhill (waymark), fieldgate and uphill by hedge to left. Fieldgate and right to road.

2. On bend, gates to track on right (fingerpost) to wooded valley.

3. Right to track at valley junction (fingerpost - Cleveland Way). Ignore next track on right signed to Cleveland Way.

4. Pass path on left angling uphill (tree had yellow tape), 30 yards and 20 yards before a turning area, take path which was unsigned on right angling steep uphill through coppiced woodland. Near top, join track for ten yards then 20 yards to edge of wood. The next track up on right had yellow tape and goes up to same point but is not public.

5. At wood edge, fence gap/old stile to field-edge path (hedge to right), join track across field (fingerpost) and into village.

Fact File

Distance: Less than four miles.

Time: Two hours.

General location: Near Sutton Bank.

Start: Cold Kirby Right of way: Public.

Map: Drawn from OL26 North York Moors western area.

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: January, 2007.

Road route: From York: up Sutton Bank on A170, immediately left past National Park Visitor Centre, 1 miles.

Car parking: Roadside in Cold Kirby.

Lavatories: Sutton Bank Visitor Centre.

Refreshments: Visitor centre.

Tourist and public transport information: Visitor centre (phone: 01845 597426).

Terrain: Mainly valley.

Points of interest: Tin sheet village hall. St Michael's is 1841, but looks much older.

Difficulty: Quite easy.

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

Map of the walk>>