Egton Bridge in glorious Eskdale

glorious Eskdale.

We got to Sleights a little bit early for our train so we bowled round an antique shop, a cake shop and a butcher's deli, then avoided watching paint dry on the platform bench by watching the River Esk flowing fast and tea coloured.

Bang on time Arriva North's three-carriage diesel pulled in from Whitby. The conductor sold us 'one-ways' to Egton Bridge and said the line was sometimes busy on a Sunday and quite popular with walkers but seats were not reservable.

In a rush of wild rose and greenery we rolled, paused at the junction with the North Yorks Moors steam line at Grosmont station and then disembarked at Egton Bridge with a couple who were on the last leg of a coast to coast.

Immediately there's the temptation of the Postgate Inn, named after the martyr executed in York. The coast-to-coast walkers swayed off ahead, holding hands, skipping around the puddles, fuelled by love.

Toll Cottage shows a board dated 1948 listing the charges - '1 Horse 4 Wheels 8d, Motor Car 4 Wheels 1s and sixpence for a hearse. There are B&Bs should you weaken.

Eskdale is lovely, the valley was green on green, the trees framing small pastures and meadows, though the track verges were bright with tall daisies and geraniums. Some Grosmont roofs showed above woods half a mile away on the other flank of the valley, no traffic showed on the bit of back road, and we followed the salmon signs and took the easy-open gates of the Esk Valley Walk. The river is visible or audible now and then, and otherwise sensed, an island, the patrol of a heron, a shale cliff.

A depth gauge read 1ft 9in but reads to 6ft, this is a spate river, not navigable here. A climb to a few hundred feet above the river brings quite a change.

Track becomes path, not any old path but a "monks trod" of heavy sandstone flags, miles of it, resonant with medieval packhorse trains of Whitby fish, and a bit slimy with algae in the woods where the squirrels scampered through the hazel. A train clattered, Sleights was in sight, a cascade of a place, and we came in by Thistle Grove and swish houses.

Sharp old iron railings protect the salmon weir; the best I ever managed was a sea trout.

fact file:

Distance: Five miles.

Time: Three hours.

General location: North York Moors.

Start: Sleights Railway Station.

Right of way: The route is along public rights of way and a permissive track.

Date walked: Friday, June 25, 2004.

Road route: Sleights is 20 miles north of Pickering on the A169 Whitby road.

Car parking: Car Park near Station and in middle of Sleights, both free, otherwise roadside.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: Inn, hotel, tea room, fish and chips and garden centre caf in Sleights, Inn at Egton Bridge.

Tourist and public transport information: Whitby TIC 01947 602674.

The Moors Centre, Danby 01439 772737.

Traveline 08706 082608.

Arriva Trains Northern 08706 023322. Esk Valley Railway Development Company www.countrygoer.org/nymoors/esk

Map: Based on OS Explorer OL27 North York Moors eastern area.

Terrain: Valley.

Points of interest: Egton Bridge Gooseberry Show, the first Tuesday of every August.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Dogs: Suitable.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly.

While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.

directions:

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

Right to road from station, 100 yards, track on left (entrance posts, signed Grosmont 1 miles).

Left to road (pavement), 100 yards, right at junction (mostly verge), straight on to track (signed to Sleights, Grosmont Farm) as road turns left uphill

Bridge and left to track near farmhouse, fieldgate, ford/footbridge, uphill.

Gate to left of house to path in wood edge and uphill (trod), right at signed junction in wood and continue uphill, gate out of wood, path along field edge (wood to right), left at first corner in field, 50 yards, gate on right (signed), trod.

Stile/fieldgate and straight on to main track, pass hall, fieldgate to field path, 150 yards, gate into wood, path, gate out into field (level ground, hedge to right), gate by fieldgate (hedge to left), gate, gate then path angles 1 o'clock downhill through scrub.

Right to drive, ten yards, path on left (signed), footbridge with gate, field path (trod) then at first field corner path continues straight on (wood to left), gate and trod, fieldgate, trod through field, stile.

Fieldgate and right to farm track, stile/fieldgate on right just before farmyard, trod through field, fieldgate, gate, trod, gate below house and right to road, downhill, bridge, right to main Pickering/Whitby road into Sleights.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 16:16 Friday, July 02, 2004