George Wilkinson discovers a high plateau that keeps him away from two main ramblers' routes.

ON my walk in the Hawnby Hills last autumn, I noticed a closed road and thought that the motorists' loss could be the walkers' gain, and so it turned out. Today we are on Murton Heights, a 700 or 800-foot high plateau that stands between the ramblers' motorway that is the Hambleton Road and Rye Dale just above Rievaulx Abbey. This nice little circuit is about the only way to do the Heights, and there are some lovely woods as well.

Tough little chaffinches were splashing and bathing in icy puddles. An inch of here-today-and-gone-tomorrow snow on Ox Pasture Lane showed up walkers' bootprints and thousands of arrow-like pheasant prints patterned the track. Stubble fields and outgrown hedges were on one side, woods the other. A light aircraft wheeled in a window of blue sky, then disappeared and tranquillity returned.

The track gradually descended on to a spur or nab of land overlooking Rye Dale and the hills and valleys of the Hawnby area, a landscape of dark woods separated by slices of white pastures, the woods steaming in the warming day.

We dropped down to Barnclose Farm, which is a somewhat out of place suburban and modern dwelling sited opposite a notable and charming ancient cruck house. We crossed the crystal spring-fed water of Deep Gill and doubled back into the old woods of Birk Bank. I heard the beck a few contours below, and loved the path through the woods of hazel, holly and birch, a very pretty mile with a brief canyon of towering conifers for contrast in the middle.

We emerged from the woods at Caydale Mill, an idyllic spot with the beck, springs, handsome Scots pines, and a ford. The ford is 50 yards of damaged streambed and is due for a £20,000 concrete renovation, but not until the dry season. In the interim, the road will only be used by the farmer and as access to the Mill House, though even when the ford is fixed I can't imagine the traffic will be heavy.

I left a robin eyeing up the remnants of my sandwich and stripped off, not for the ford I hasten to add, that is no problem, but for the ten minutes of steepish tarmac that brings us on to Murton Heights again.

Most of the snow had melted under the hot sun. Murton Grange looked good over the fields, with its white painted houses, fine modern barns and somewhere in the stylish complex a unique building - the only barn on the North York Moors to date from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Directions

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

1. From Murton Grange, 100 yards south along Old Byland road, gate by pair of fieldgates on left (signed bridleway) to track.

2. At beginning of wood, left fork and stay on track by outside edge.

3. At end of wood fieldgate and straight on by fence (fieldgates).

4. At barn by edge of wood turn right along spur or nab - keeping above track that runs by wood.

5. Stile/gate and left (signed Barnclose Farm), 200 yards, right at wood corner to track, down into farmyard.

6. Right immediately after modern house, tarmac lane, fieldgate into farmyard, right, fieldgate/cattlegrid and uphill for 50 yards.

7. Fieldgate on right (waymark), path to and through wood (ignore left forks), across rough pasture. Right to road.

8. Ford, bypass this on 'path' on sloping 'verge' next to and south of ford. Footbridge to road and back to start.

Fact file

Distance: Five miles.

Time: Two hours plus.

General location: Western edge of North York Moors National Park.

Start: Murton Grange.

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

Date walked: Saturday, January 20, 2001.

Road route: A choice. Either: Helmsley, Bilsdale, Hawnby road, left at junction a quarter mile from Hawnby then three-quarters of a mile. Or: via Boltby or Sutton Bank. NB: back road from Old Byland to Hawnby closed at moment.

Car parking: Verge near Murton Grange GR536882.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: Inn at Hawnby.

Tourist and public transport information: Sutton Bank Visitors' Centre 01845 597426.

Map: Based on OS Outdoor Leisure 26 North York Moors Western Area.

Terrain: Plateau and valley.

Points of interest: Views. Data on buildings from 'Houses of the North York Moors' published by HMSO. Murton Grange was a grange of Byland Abbey.

Difficulty: Quite gentle.

Dogs: Suitable for dogs but keep on leads or under close control.

Weather forecast: Evening Press and recorded forecast 0891 500 418

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