May Beck, near Whitby

May Beck car park is in a fold of the moors five miles south of Whitby and is a pretty and popular spot, with streams that join under alder trees and ash, although on the downside, there is bracken about.

But that didn't concern us. We were off through the forest for the first few miles on a fast track of crushed and compacted limestone, on part of the Moor To Sea cycle route, heading for the moor.

The forest is mature. Chunks were freshly felled and looked desolate, and many trees lay uprooted by storms.

For the first hour there was little reason to slow, and we didn't stop except to read a sign that warned: "Honeybees ahead, please pass quickly!", followed by 20 or so hives.

A beekeeping friend tells me that each hive may yield between ten and 60 pounds of honey depending on the weather and how much work the beekeeper has done in the spring.

The bees may have had some joy from the forest trailside flowers, but were, like us, here for the heather.

So it was out of the trees and on to the purple, the colour as strong as it gets, and most convenient a trig point by a tumulus with panoramic views.

What is there to see?

By the trig point there is a standing stone on a tumulus, but watch for the nearby hole in the ground.

Distant, a stone cross, more distant, the sea.

Less lovely is the backside of the Fylingdales radar station, quite a complex of buildings. Walkers were on the no-go military moor. They survived. It's the grouse-shooting season, not that said birds were evident.

The way back is nearly all through heather on a path called Robin Hood's Bay Road. It was simple to follow, grooved by bikes, but easy walking and only briefly affected by bracken near Bracken Hill.

Leech Bog Slack had no obvious leeches and at a guess is a misspelling of leach as in water that here drains into a beck that you get but a hint of. And actually on the day the wildlife interest was in the insects. A green tiger beetle sunned itself; ferocious predators these. Similarly sunbathing was a toxic fox moth caterpillar. Water spiders skitted on pondweed wetness and big black benign gnats hung in the air.

The circuit has a coda of pasture and ziz-zag descent. Long-distance walkers rested by the beck ) place is on Alfred Wainright's original coast-tocoast). Walk this soon just for the heather and don't much worry about the weather because the colour is more vivid under a dull sky.

Fact file

Distance: Six miles.

Time: Three hours.

General location: North York Moors.

Start: May Beck carpark GR 892025.

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

Date walked: Saturday, August 20, 2005.

Road route: From York, A64 via Scarborough, then A171 via Burniston and Cloughton then 8 miles to left turn signed Seaton 4 Ruswarp 5, then 1 miles to left turn signed May Beck, 1 miles to carpark.

Car parking: Free at May Beck.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: None.

Tourist & public pransport Information: Whitby TIC 01947 663424.

Map: Based on OS OL27 North York Moors eastern area.

Terrain: Forest and moor.

Points of interest: Heather (late flowering this year).

Difficulty: Moderate.

Directions

Right to track uphill from car park, gate into forest.

Left at T-junction. Later ignore track to right.

Right fork at Y-junction (cycle route sign).

Gates on moor, 50 yards, track on left, pass trig, 200 yards.

Track on left at four-way junction (fingerpost, Robin Hoods Bay), becomes path, down, uphill after '9 Trail and arrow sign' the other way.

Left at 4-way junction (fingerpost), 100 yards, snickelgate near wood corner, track downhill in field for 200 yards, left fork at post to waymarked stile, straight on past ruined barn, old field boundary to right. Stile to path at 1 o'clock which then zigzags downhill via posts. Stile in gorse, right fork, 25 yards, left to road back to car park.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 15:49 Friday, August 26, 2005