A walk among the daffodils

There are more than 25,000 named cultivars of daffodil, and there are various wild daffodils all over the world. Nevertheless Farndale's wild daffs are rightly famous and well worth a visit.

The National Parks Daffy Bus starts at Easter, so we couldn't use it. But you can, and disembark at the bottom end of Farndale, walk north up the long valley and then get the bus back to Hutton-le-Hole where I hope you've left your car.

Driving up Farndale in the weeks of floral frenzy is not the 'gentler way'.

Some walkers were out, and so were the daffodils, half were fully open, the other half about to. We took a dry path through the Nature Reserve, just above the River Dove, the lower path being wet and of fragile ecology, and passed the serene Quaker burial ground and chatted to the occasional walker. A romantic pair played poo sticks from a bridge.

The first couple of miles were very pretty and despite the acreage of yellow trumpets were very peaceful.

A sign read 'Cleveland Survival 2004', but this would be a lovely place to expire, rather like the Greek Narcissus (Narkissos) in the mythically narcotic scent of the Narcissus pseudonarcissus, but don't do this at home and please not on one of my walks. Talking of floral abuse, the Arabs used the toxic sap for baldness.

I was thinking about this, not because I'm bald, but because the poisonous sap saves the daffs from munching animals.

The track we were walking has been resurfaced for the pheasant shooters and took us up Thunder Head Hill for our first big view of the valley. Perky daffodils grow in a dry stone wall and 200 feet above the river.

There's a boggy bit of track to bypass, a gravelly spring for boot washing then a gamekeeper's yard with tools of the trade and what appears to be a watch tower in tree-house style.

We dipped into a sunken path and then climbed steeply up the east flank of the valley alongside a beck of a hundred cascades and reached our sandwich stop.

Here, 'lonely as a cloud', just below the crag line, we took in the super view up and across Farndale, down on to the dozen rooftops of the hamlet of Low Mill 300 feet below and the fields made metal by cars.

At Low Mill it was all go, locals raked in cash for the church via marmalade sales. National Park Rangers Tom, Eric and Joanne cheerfully informed and herded the fleece-clad flocks. A mountain rescue team watched over the survivors of the Cleveland Survival 2004, actually they hadn't been needed for those toughies but I understand a yellow helicopter had had to pluck a large woman out the Dove the day before.

The last couple of miles are the popular ones, to the tune of 50,000 visitors each season, and the phenomenon is probably of more interest to the sociologist than the nature lover. The skills of Michael Schumacher pay off on the smooth path and the approaches to the congested gateways. In the slithery fields, hosts of the street-shod were immobilised.

At High Mill recover at the Daffy Caffy, there's a pub up the road for the harder stuff.

Fact file

Distance: Five and a half miles.

Time: Three hours.

General location: North York Moors.

Start: Hutton-le-Hole.

Right of way: The complete route is along public rights of way.

Date walked: Saturday, March 27 2004.

Road route: Hutton-le-Hole is three miles north of the A170 from Keldholme near Kirkbymoorside.

Car parking: National Parks Car Park at Hutton-le- Hole, £1.50, charges deducted from Daffy Bus charge.

Lavatories: Hutton-le-Hole and Low Mill.

Refreshments: Inn and tearooms at Hutton-le-Hole, Daffy Caffy and Feversham Arms at Church Houses.

Tourist and public transport information: Helmsley TIC 01439 770173. National Park Centre 01845 597426. The Daffodil shuttle bus runs on 9, 10, 11, 12 and Sundays 4, 18, 25 of April 2004. Cost: £1.50, £3.00 family. First bus 9.30am from Hutton-le-Hole, next 10am then every 15 minutes until 5pm. Last bus from Church Houses (Feversham Arms) 5.22pm.

Map: Based on OS Explorer OL 26 North York Moors western area.

Terrain: Riverside, and valley side.

Points of interest: Daffodil, a new book by C P Wachsberger and T James, Jr, £13.95 from Abrams publishers.

Difficulty: Some rough ground.

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. Through mini car park, track to footbridge, right, 50 yards by stream, left fork.

2. Right at wood edge, left to path above River Dove. Ignore first makeshift footbridge by wood edge (single rail on left, made with boarding).

3. Footbridge after fence/old gate (handrails either side, one gate) and left to walled track uphill, over tracks junction and continue uphill (conifers on right, signed footpath), then contour. Walkers were avoiding very wet and muddy 50-yard stretch by going via pasture on right (wire netting fence was down).

4. After first house, straight on to walled grassy track (signed).

5. Right to road, 25 yards, wall stile on left (signed) uphill, stile, stile on left then fieldgate into yard and immediately right between barn and house, fieldgate out of yard, track on left for 50 yards, fieldgate on left, grassy path at one o'clock uphill to wall corner, path (wall/fence to left).

6. At wall end, path drops slightly for about 25 yards then roughly contours across field to wooden fieldgate in opposite wall, moorland path at one o'clock then first left to loop downhill, fieldgate to yard to left of cottage, track, across road junction to road downhill to Low Mill.

7. Gate on right immediately after car park to gated path alongside river to High Mill.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 16:30 Friday, April 02, 2004