Snacks and adders

Commondale is a village settled in almost the most northerly dip of the North York Moors.

We wanted to explore Skelderskew Moor further to the north, so we angled out through a pretty little valley, sometimes on old sandstone paving (trod), and then turned up through the grass, touched with heather and bubbling with springs, to the open moor. There is so much to see that we went back the next day for another look.

Starting way back in time - the ground is ridged with long earthworks, there are large round tumuli and there are standing stones that look like a circle on the horizon as you approach them but perhaps are more of a line.

Also there are various generations of grouse butts, the latest new, semi-subterranean, wood-lined, gravel-floored and drained by plastic pipe. These are disrespectfully close to ancient-looking stuff.

Watching over all of this is the Hob on the Hill which is an inscribed stone memorial to a member of a mythical, mischievous and sub-human type.

He, and any others that rest here, have splendid views. A dozen golden plovers flew in and then wandered around. An unofficial but useful diversion route takes one to within 50 yards of the Hob, but take an OS map and a compass for bad weather.

Moving on across the moor and to more modern stones. These are boundary markers, many bearing 18th and 19th-century carved dates and initials. A ruler-straight line of them took us to the northern edge of the moor where there is a stone called Hob Cross.

Here we rested and had our bait on a sunny bank and looked out to the sea. Nearby an adder basked, loosely coiled on a sunny bank. They need this basking - don't we all - and so like living in areas with the slopes of tumuli and such.

Geese pottered around a pond and we started back over the moor, collected a sequence of snapshots of the coast, saw Lockwood Beck reservoir and admired the lovely roundness of Freebrough Hill. Then we met the Quakers' Causeway path which might have got its name from its 18th-century use.

It's wonderful to walk and the 'trod' still retains a splendid length of its flags.

Curlews and skylarks sang, and a lady said she was glad she'd put out her washing.

A mile of descent remained, spacious for the view into the mouths of Danby Dale and Westerdale. It became confusing for a moment because a little wood marked on the map was a stack of pine trunks on the ground. But then it was pleasant: we saw the distinctive red brick and yellow lintels of the Commondale buildings, the church with 1980s glass, the Cleveland Inn and the tea shop and a massive millennium bench.

Fact file

Distance: Five and a half miles.

Time: Three hours.

General Location: North York Moors.

Start: The village of Commondale.

Right of way: The route is along public rights of way and an unofficial diversion.

Date walked: Saturday, April 10, 2004.

Road route: Signed off 1 miles from Castleton to Guisborough Road, two miles north of Castleton.

Car parking: Roadside, limited.

Lavatories: Commondale.

Refreshments: Inn and Tea Room.

Tourist and public transport information: National Park Visitor Centre 01845 597426.

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

Terrain: Moorland.

Points of interest: On adders - The New Naturalist 2000 volume on Amphibians And Reptiles by T Beebee and R Griffiths.

Difficulty: Moderate in clear weather.

Dogs: Neatly painted stones requesting dogs on leads.

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 pub, uphill and west on Stokesley road, pass buildings, grassy path on right (ignore path to nearby gate in wall to right), gate in wire fence to intermittent paved trod, bridge over beck.

2. Path uphill 100 yards to gate in fence, path at ten o'clock uphill 200 yards, contour above wire fence to join path, uphill (approx. 345 degrees magnetic).

3. Official diversion waymark, left to contour below long earthworks.

4. Plank bridge and right to stone track, 100 yards, left to narrow path in heather to memorial cross, 20 yards, right on faint path in burnt heather after Grouse Butt No. 1 and up bank to rejoin stone track.

5. Left on rejoined track, 20 yards, path on right through heather (cairn), become twin-track by grouse butts.

6. Track swings east to pass 50 yards to right of Hob on the Hill tumulus, white-tipped posts mark route (this is different from the OS map, path on OS map vanished).

7. Left to follow line of boundary stones (again this is not as on OS map).

8. Right at wall by two dated stones to path (Hob Cross on tumulus to left), sometimes boggy. As wall curves to left, path continues across moor, and uphill, under wires (waymarks).

9. Right to flagged trod.

10. Right at road (verge), 50 yards round road corner, grassy path on right (signed). Right to road (verge) back down into Commondale.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 08:52 Saturday, April 17, 2004