Chop and change

Many moons ago I had a landlady who claimed to remember the days when the road through Bilsdale was no more than a rough track. Now the holiday traffic hammers through on a fine weekend and for walkers the village of Chop Gate is a popular place to start a walk on the North York Moors.

The sun-drenched moors looked most inviting, pastures brilliant with dandelions and bouncing with lambs.

We found a track up the east side of the valley and headed for William Beck Farm. Here, the spring water and the precise local stonework come together as an extraordinary sandstone trough that is a good six paces long and subdivided into three chambers for the purpose, I would guess, of settling out any particles in the water.

Soon we hit the heather and the bilberry and entered the huge open access area that covers 16,000 acres to the south and east. This meant we didn't have to search for a path through the heather because a shooters' track headed north along the edge for easy walking and great views.

But first, the climbing done, we had a sit down on a rock and chatted, not so much about the view from a thousand feet over the valley to the Cleveland Hills, but about trees, traffic and pheasants.

For two reasons. First, we had walked through the road noise band to get to our peaceful perch, and wondered if a roadside barrier of trees would stop that.

Second, the landscape a mile or so further down the valley is going to be transformed by the new woods that bristle as saplings in plastic sheaths over the old pastures. Woods tend to result in pheasants and more of these birds could bring a biological control to the 'motorcycle menace' on the 'Bilsdale TT' with the bikers avoiding this road just as they avoid unfenced routes because of sheep. Not that I'm anti bike, having had five.

Onward, a mile along the edge, we see a heat haze on the heather horizon, some crags below and the roofs of Chop Gate further away.

A map by the track of the Nawton Tower Estate/Bransdale Moor access area is interesting but a clearer version can be found on the Inland Revenue website (www.cto.eds.co.uk Land, Buildings and their contents).

Then we descended. A green woodpecker flashed vividly across a valley and soon we were in the hamlet of Seave Green.

Our last bit, back to Chop Gate, started a bit rural backyardish, with grey Ferguson tractors retired to sheds. But then after, we came across a pheasant wood and a fishing pond and, by dint of perceptive navigation, we emerged on target at ESP House.

Fact file:

Distance: Four miles.

Time: Two hours.

General location: North York Moors National Park.

Start: Chop Gate.

Right of way: The complete route is either on public rights of way or in Nawton Tower Estate Open Access Area.

Date walked: Friday, April 23 2004.

Road route: B1257 from Stokesley or Helmsley. On Moorsbus route.

Car parking: Free car park.

Lavatories: At car park.

Refreshments: The Buck Inn.

Tourist and public transport information: Helmsley TIC 01439 770173.

Map: Based on OS OL26 North York Moors western area.

Terrain: Valley side.

Points of interest: The prehistoric earthwork along the north/south line of this route is three miles long, the longest on the moors.

Difficulty: Five hundred foot climb.

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.

1. From car park, right to road, 100 yards, stile on left (signed) to path one o'clock across field, stile in corner, left to track up to farmhouse.

2. Track to right of house, 20 yards, walled track on right which swings left uphill after 50 yards, fieldgate, cross field, fieldgate, fieldgate to bracken and bilberry 'field' and left for ten yards then right and path straight uphill (waymarked post).

3. Fieldgate to moor, path, 50 yards, left to contouring main stone track.

4. Left at 'T'-junction with track (Grouse Butt and Estate sign on boulder) and downhill, gate and path continues snaking down, pass long barn, gateway, fieldgate to track, fieldgate to road.

5. Before bridge, track on left, ford/mini bridge, 10 yards, steps on right to edge of garden path (sign), rejoins track. Just before barns/house, leave track and fork left to left of ditch (keep hedge to right).

6. Stiles and footbridge by garden and immediately left, fieldgate, stile, stile, gateway, stile into wood, path by edge of wood.

7. Footbridge and stile out of wood, immediately stile on right then left across field to join path to right and back to start.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 15:54 Friday, May 07, 2004