Coasting along

THE North Yorkshire Moors has numerous forest tracks and many minor roads and this, coupled with its fine scenery, make it arguably the best cycling area in the region.

The park is now exploiting this fact by launching a new moor to sea route. In future features, I will be describing the bulk of the route, which forms a triangle between Pickering, Scarborough and Whitby. But to whet my appetite - and yours hopefully - I pioneered a shorter section between Wykeham and Ravenscar, adding a return route of my own to make it circular.

Few journeys of exploration start with such little effort and need for map-reading. I stood at the top of a high bank and looked down through the pine trees picking out just a short section of track between them. My bearings fixed, I pushed off and, within seconds, was freewheeling at speed down the forest path, swinging this way and that, like an Alpine skier.

The next leg of the trip wasn't quite so simple and speedy. At the end of a lane I encountered the Thompsons Steps stepping stones over a ford. Long since robbed of my downwards momentum and wary of having soggy feet for the rest of the day, I opted against trying to pedal through. Instead I lifted my bike on to my shoulder and cautiously paced from stone to stone (the National Park has since changed the route away from the stones).

On the big push up to Broxa, I had plenty of time to admire the view. The distinct form of Howden Hill is so rounded it looks like a burial mound and beyond that lies the flat-topped Blakey Topping, a lozenge on the landscape.

After the village, I left the tarmac and continued into a large plantation on a forest road. The surface is remarkably good - broad, wide and smooth - and I was able to make swift progress. Eventually the route runs along the top of a bank from which I could see over the trees and across a prairie-like expanse of grass dotted with sheep and, to the right, gentle sloping hills smeared with yellow rape.

I was glad to escape from the wind for lunch inside The Falcon Inn near Staintondale. The sea at last came into sight soon after leaving the pub - but only for a moment. For a much better view I had to wait.

Looking and waiting were familiar occupations to the former occupants of the Smugglers' Rock Country House, which is on the route. Smugglers would watch out for the constabulary through a tiny nine by three inch window and then shine a light when it was safe to bring up contraband through tunnels from the beach.

Towering over the beach is the magnificent headland of Ravenscar which juts out into the ocean like the bow of a ship. Had Victorian developers succeeded in their plans, Ravenscar would have become a seasort resort "twixt moors and sea" to rival its neighbours, Whitby and Scarborough. Some 300 men were employed to lay drains and construct new roads.

However, there were few buyers for the plots of land and the venture failed, probably because of the windiness of the site and inaccessibility of the shore. All that remains of the roads are farm tracks and Marine Esplanade is a mere scratch in the landscape. The two houses that were built along it today stand out like a baby's first teeth and the only promenaders are cattle.

I cycled around the former Station Square - the only other major part of the resort to be completed - and on to the Rail Trail cycle path which runs from Whitby to Scarborough. Trains ran along this route from the 1880s until the line's closure in 1965. Now it's one of the best cycle routes in the country - especially if you're travelling from north to south like me as the gentle downhill gradient makes for easy riding.

There are regular reminders of the route's past. At one point you pass through a former station now converted to a private house with platforms at shoulder height on either side. At Cloughton an old signal is the cue to leave the track and take tea in the attractive garden at the Station Tea Rooms which, of course, was previously Cloughton station. An alternative refreshment stop is the Hayburn Wyke Inn, close to the pebbly beach of the same name.

Suddenly I heard a seagull then in the next break in the trees could make out the silhouette of Scarborough Castle. The moor to sea route continues all the way into the town and then out towards Pickering. I decided to cut off a corner, though, to make my route a little shorter and to take in the peaceful village of Hackness. It is dominated by the Hackness Grange hotel, the sort of place you'd bring your spouse on a special wedding anniversary.

The other two notable buildings are St Peter's Church and the primary school next door, which would provide an ideal location for a film-maker in search of the archetypal Victorian village school.

The ride ends, inevitably, with a long push up. Where's a ski lift when you need one?

Directions:

Distance: 24 miles.

Time: 3 hours, excluding stops.

Directions: Park at High Wood Brow car park, north of Sawdon.

Pass through two large stones on to tarmac track which soon becomes stony track.

Follow down a steep slope all the way to the road. Turn R then either:

(a) fork L down a track at a road sign with motorbike and car on it then, after stepping stones, turn R then first L to Broxa or

(b) turn sharp L then first R to Broxa.

Pass through village to follow a stoned track into the forest.

Eventually, at a junction with a road, cross over and, on the other side of an island in a car park, follow a track with trees overhanging it on both sides. At end turn L signed 'Silpho Brow'.

Turn L at road then immediately R down forest track. Follow track round to L and through a gate. Turn L at major crossroad of tracks.

After a kink in the track take the next R. Turn R on the A171 and after 100m turn L past The Falcon Inn and then L again signed 'Staintondale 2 miles/Ravenscar 2 miles'.

Turn L to Moorland House and, after house, continue onwards along a track heading for windmill. Emerge on to the road at the Smugglers Rock Country House.

Turn L (but not sharp left) down Ravenhall Road signed 'Raven Hall Country House Hotel'. At hotel turn R and then after the Foxcliffe Tea Rooms go around Station Square and L down Loring Rd onto the rail trail cycle path.

A mile after the Hayburn Wyke Inn and at an old railway signal, leave the cycle path. Turn R into Cloughton then L at crossroads into Burniston.

Take the first R down Limestone Rd signed 'Harwood Dale 4/Hackness 4'. Turn L staying on Limestone Rd signed Hackness. At top of hill turn L at t-junction signed 'Hackness 2'. Pass through Suffield. After church in Hackness follow road round to the L. Turn L at war memorial then fork R signed 'Wrench Green only' and over a little bridge.

Turn R at T-junction in front of yellow salting bin signed "Link". Turn L in front of The Old Chapel. At top of hill the road becomes a forest track.

You will reach a junction with two turns to the L and one to the R. Take the R turn. At fork in paths stay on road that follows round to the L to return to car park.

Click here to view a map of the ride

Updated: 09:14 Saturday, July 19, 2003