GEORGE WILKINSON blows away the cobwebs on the North York Moors
At Blakey I said to the Moorsbus driver, 'Ralph's Cross please'. 'Ralph's Cross?' he queried.
Three minutes later I got off the bus by the park's emblem, at 1,370 feet, at the 'geological centre of the North York Moors'.
Racing pigeons zoomed south into sun-drenched Rosedale 'frightened' by lowering skies over their supposed Skelton destination.
Fat Betty beckons north (ancient cross number two, white and squat) for the day's first moor.
We touch open road at some unsympathetic new kerbing, then sink into the ordered calm of Botton Village.
The valley has been a Steiner sheltered community since 1955, as in Rudolph Steiner, philosopher, artist, architect, educationalist, and agronomist.
Typically you see a complex, two-tiered timber and stone hexagon nestled up to a traditional farmhouse. You'll be astonished by the sights.
A bakery makes the famous Botton bread, which is organic plus, as farming here is biodynamic. Dynamism is useful on the steep climb out, and patience, as friendly but mischievous pigs, Oxford Sandy and Tans, nuzzle rocks against gates.
From the top you cross another imminently-purple moor with the best views of every northern landmark. I saw a container ship suspended in a slot of sky-coloured sea. At the far edge of the moor you look down at the exquisite moat-shape of the encircling Fryup Dales.
We need the 'right to roam' for the contour path. Instead we must descend 300 feet into Fryup Dale then immediately ascend the same.
However the last moor - the moor regained - is a pleasure well earned, a nice slope down to Danby Lodge with Eskdale revealed and a fine stone slab in a stone circle.
At the Moors Centre, while I waited for the bus, the Dalesmen Singers crooned to the crowds from under a copper beech.
In a cool backroom, spinners and weavers worked on wool that brings farmers a few pence a kilo, and £200 sweaters that take a month to make.
DIRECTIONS
When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.
1. Road (Rosedale Abbey five miles).
2. Path on left, White Cross (bridleway sign). White boundary markers.
3. Right to road (verge), 75 yards, path on right (signed). Downhill (right of gully), left above conifers, fieldgate, 25 yards, right, fieldgate to farmyard, left by house.
4. Right to lane, ignore all turns until T-junction, right uphill, left-hand bend.
5. Track on right (East Cliff, bridleway, barn near road), fieldgate. Before house, gate on left, skirt round to back of house via gates (fingerposts). Fieldgate above barn to last field.
6. Fieldgate to bracken, forty paces on path that curves to left, right to path eventually waymarked with yellow blobs, enter gully halfway up, (not as on OS map).
7. At top, left onto contour path, 20 yards, right to path across moor (45'mag) then downhill.
8. Left to road, 200 yards, path on left uphill (signed bridleway to Ainthorpe). At top, waymarks, downhill, fieldgate at end of moor, 50 yards, right fork.
9. Right to road, 150 yards, path on left through bracken (overgrown, adjacent to drive), cattlegrid/gate and straight on to wall stile by house, left, 100 yards, right across field to ladderstile, right, over brow, stile in corner on right, fieldedge path, stile.
10. Stile and right to road, stile on left (signed Danby Lodge), gated railway crossing, footbridge and gate to Danby Lodge.
FACT FILE
Distance: Six miles.
Time: Three to four hours.
Start: Ralph's Cross, one and a half miles north of the Lion Inn at Blakey, Grid Ref 677022.
End: The Moors Centre, Danby.
Right of way: The complete route is along public rights of way.
Date walked: Sunday, July 18.
Lavatories: The Moors Centre.
Refreshments: The Moors Centre.
Tourist & public transport info: The Moors Centre, tel 01287 660654 or on Internet at http://www.countrygoer.org/nymoors www.countrygoer.org/nymoors
Moorsbus: Frequent services via Ralph's Cross to Danby. Daily from Sunday, July 26 to Tuesday, August 31, Sundays only in September and October. Parties of seven or more are asked to telephone. From York Rail Station at 0905 (the M15 to Danby), or depart York at 0950 and change at Helmsley. Last bus from Danby to York is 1720.
Map: Based on OS Outdoor Leisure Number 26, North York Moors western area.
Terrain: Two steepish climbs.
Footwear: Walking boots.
Points of interest: Views, Botton, crosses and stones.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Dogs: Suitable for dogs 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.
PICTURE:Fat Betty, the unmistakable moorland marker
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