View to a thrill

You emerge further along the valley but still quite high on its western flank. We've got to get up the other side, which entails a little used route of pasture, oak wood, stream crossing, then more gully-divided intake fields, bracken and heather.

The dale was deathly quiet, a puzzling lack of activity until I realised everyone else was at Bilsdale Show. Everybody bar the shooters. Six guns, one on each contour, six beaters approaching them, waving white flags.

A few grouse, the intermittent crack of 12 bores. I met the guns a quarter of a mile on. Their Land Rover pulled up, they quizzed me on my route and reassuringly suggested 'don't worry about us'. The only thing worrying me was the ascent. They had it easy, driving up to blast more birds.

I stayed clear, took a haphazard line, and waded through the heather midst a cloud of pollen. From the super top path, the shape of the countryside unfolds.

Bilsdale one side, Raisdale the other. We're on Cold Moor, narrow and high level.

Ahead is the great vista, among the best in Yorkshire. You look down on another world of flatness, harvest-patterned fields for miles and miles, to the city and sea, with to the east, Roseberry Topping, 'Yorkshire's Matterhorn'.

All yours for the next two miles on the Cleveland Way, which is also the 'Coast to Coast'. Further along is the official viewpoint with a plaque showing sightlines to Whernside and Ingleborough in the Dales, as well as the various Teesside towns.

The latter are generally vague as the air curdles over the conurbation. The air over the high purple heather was dense with heavy black gnats, flying ants, and scary but sleepy long orange and black insects. You have some considerable ups and downs to come, made comfortable whatever your stride length by the ergonomic asymmetric steps.

Nevertheless the Lord Stones Caf was welcome, and you have to admire its camouflage. It's literally submerged in the moor, a nice construction, and the venue this weekend for the final round of the National Mountain Bike Championships and an expected 3,000 people, but not on our circuit, and there will be an infinity of parking. This caf is the sort of diversification most farmers would give their combine harvester for.

DIRECTIONS

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

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

1. Car park, left to road, 100 yards, track and fieldgate on right (signed), stile/fieldgate.

2. At house, drive on left, gate on left and right downhill on mown path below garden, stile, cross stream, stile and downhill by stream, cross stream, uphill, left-hand bend, cross field (towards nearby wood), stile (50 yards to right of metal fieldgate in wire fence), wooden footbridge over stream, 20 yards, 1 o'clock, fieldgate.

3. Left to road, ten yards, fieldgate on right (bridleway sign), 1 o'clock to corner, path straight uphill into wood, 100 yards.

4. Right to track (ignore fork downhill), fieldgate out of wood, track ends, stile and path into wood, 10 yards, uphill at 11 o'clock (waymark). Some pruning indicates the line which curves up then down to stile exit.

5. Downhill, 1 o'clock to path near fence, left to track. Ignore waymark post after 20 yards as plantation blocks way down. Instead, after ten yards of track, grassy path on right downhill to fieldgates. Ignore these gates, turn right on faint path through bracken (wall to left).

6. Stile on left at field corner, downhill, (ignore waymarked stile). At waymarked fieldgate on right, turn left across field then right downhill, after trees jut out, to stile (waymark) into wood, path at 11 o'clock downhill, railed footbridge over stream, gate, 10 o'clock across field, take right of 2 gateways (fieldgate), diagonally across field, fieldgate and right (gully and wall on right) to Beak Hills farmhouse.

7. Wall stile and skirt house, stile, wall stile, left into yard, and unless waymarked/passable, reach field above house by turning right at small stone barn/garage (so it's on left )to fieldgate, right uphill in field.

8. Fieldgate to moor. The track ahead is the simplest and easiest way uphill. However, I turned left on contour grassy path. At squeezer on left, angle back right uphill by gully. No sign of path through heather, so head for rocky outcrops that overlook Beak Hills farm.

9. At top, left to good ridge path.

10. Left to paved Cleveland Way, fieldgate, stile/fieldgate. Left at viewpoint.

FACT FILE

Distance: Five and a half miles.

Time: Three hours.

Start: Lord Stones Caf.

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

Date walked: Saturday, August 28.

Road route: Either via A19, or via Chop Gate in Bilsdale. Or Moorsbus.

Parking: Free if you buy something from the caf, otherwise £2 long stay.

Refreshments and lavatories: Lord Stones Caf.

Tourist & public transport info: Helmsley TIC 01439 770173

Map: Based on OS Outdoor Leisure 26, North York Moors western area.

Terrain: Quite hilly. The Cleveland Way is mostly paved.

Footwear: Walking boots.

Points of interest: Views, moorland, caf. Mountain Bike Championship today and tomorrow.

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:View of the Plain of Stokesley looking towards Teesside

Click here to view a map of the walk