Into the valley

It is a notch of a valley, flat land a couple of miles deep and a mile or so wide where the Stokesley Plain pushes into the Cleveland Hills.

And quiet, a nice place to be, with drifts of buttercups, a manor, chunky sandstone field walls, insect-rich damp areas and a horizon of steep encircling hills.

Next there was a mile and a half straight along forestry track. In the 19th century, a railway ran here, taking ironstone from the Rosedale mines to the blast furnaces of Middlesbrough. The gradient is, to a walker, an imperceptible one in 50. A stoat scampered along the track; we kicked up dust on the wheelchair-smooth surface. To the east of the track the land rises immediately and forested to the moors; the land to the west pans out as pasture after sheep pasture, interspersed with a few areas of springs and copses of alder or birch.

Near the head of the valley, just before the old rail track ascends to the heather on its one-in-five incline, we took our leave, settled for easy going and sunk into a lush semi-parkland for sandwiches and siesta. The sheep took shade under splendid oaks.

After Old Sheepfold Farm, which was tranquillity base, came New Sheepfold Farm, where all the action started. We had hit the afternoon of a high-octane silage harvest. A shuttle of tractors roared up and down the back lane towing big red trailers. We walked over a field of the cut grass, dodged a swarm of bees, walked a field where the grass was raked into furrows, and then a field where a Claas Jaguar 880 forager was sucking it up like a demented Dyson and jetting it almost without a break into trailer after trailer.

The consumers of this are - at a guess - a herd of pedigree Holstein Friesians. The losers, the ground-nesting lapwings, though some thrived here - we walked under their decoy dives.

We were focused on the harvest, but did noticed various landmarks: Captain Cook's Monument, Roseberry Topping, the incline, and a far away glint of the popular view point car park on Clay Bank.

That left a field of grass that was still standing, then stone steps down into a protected wood, which was a double refresher, cool and solid white with tangy garlic.

Fact file

Distance: Five and a half miles.

Time: Three hours.

General location: Cleveland Hills.

Start: Ingleby Greenhow.

Right of way: The route is along public rights of way and in an open access wood.

Date walked: Friday May 30 2003.

Road route: From Stokesley: take A173 signed Great Ayton for half a mile, right turn signed Ingleby Greenhow four miles, right turn at Easby signed.

Car parking: Limited roadside in Ingleby Greenhow. For patrons of the Dudley Arms Inn, by kind permission their signed car park 100 yards down the road. Alternatively, trackside at Bank Foot.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: Food and drink at the Dudley Arms Inn at Ingleby Greenhow.

Tourist and public transport information: Great Ayton TIC 01642 722835.

Map: Based on OS Explorer OL26 North York Moors Western area.

Terrain: Valley floor.

Points of interest: According to the RSPB, lapwings declined in the 19th century when their eggs were collected for food. This was banned in 1926. Numbers fell from the 1940s, stabilised in the 1960s but between 1987 and 1998 halved.

Difficulty: Moderate/easy.

Dogs: Suitable, sheep and ground nesting birds.

Weather forecast: Evening Press and recorded forecast 0891 500 418.

Directions

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

1. Right from car park entrance ramp, 50 yards, right at T-junction, pass phone box, 20 yards, path on right between houses (signed, fenced). Stile.

2. Stile and left by fence, 100 yards, right at field corner, stile, path angles left through rough pasture, join track by wall to left.

3. Fieldgate and right to track.

4. About 50 yards ahead of tracks 'Y' junction and 50 yards after a gravel turning area on right, look out for fieldgate on right (chained, no sign) with a stile to its right (behind trees), then 11 o'clock across field, slightly downhill, join track.

5. Stile into farmyard, right after house to track, swings left through next farmyard, right after barns to road.

6. Track on right (signed) at Low Farm, 100 yards, stile on left, stile and right, 50 yards, left beside hedge (hedge to right), stile, cross field, gap, pass houses, keep straight on across grass to stile, one o'clock and join wood edge path.

7. Stile into woods, stone steps downhill, either bridge across beck and back into village, or left to path through woods, right to road and back to village.

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

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 08:38 Saturday, June 07, 2003