George Wilkinson manages to give the throng the slip at Goathland.
Goathland was pulsing with visitors, though apparently the pressure is down, the financial tourniquet tightening, which is not the holidaying at home prognosis.
Though this is certainly Costa lot less Goathland. A fire engine raced through the village, siren blaring, but there is still life, still a summer throb in Heartbeat Country.
We ambled past the TV attractions, including a Ford Anglia police car, a horrid car. At the station, a train pulled in and out poured the holiday crowd.
Across the tracks, is the countryside and a little hill of it brought up a transporter’s quiet bench and a view down into a pretty valley junction with a cottage from which a woman emerged to shoo sheep away from her shiny 4X4. Rams will attack their metallic reflection with horn and solid head.
We took a side valley where the water ran red, and in places it oozed bloody and concentrated with iron rust from the steep, high banks of shale.
There was nobody around and two stream side rocks made for a sandwich stop and an investigation CSI style. Under a rock coated with red algae I found the cigarette butt sized larva of a caddis fly, armoured and camouflaged by a casing of stone fragments. A big bright dragonfly hawked the water for prey, and equally insectivorous and deadly there are the inconspicuous sundew plants that look fantastic close up with their curved hairs each tipped with a drop of glistening sticky flycatcher goo.
On a larger scale, the valley ended up deep beneath us and we reached the dappled sunlight of a topping oak copse.
The route deflects at a side valley, dry on the day, and turns on to the moors. Here, in the open, is the chance to spot another train and on a far moor is a round sheep shelter or bield, but don’t be distracted by the fact that there are far more paths than waymarks and that people use ‘usage routes’. The next half mile has some old pastures and a renovation with triangular windows, a rarity in the North York Moors National Park.
Beck Hole is the tucked away hamlet with a tiny pub. We approached from above and then veered away, guided by old iron public footpath signs towards Egton and Egton Bridge.
Then, along some old rail tracks, there’s the easiest of ½ miles on the return, a super smooth wheelchair path that wheels through the once Beck Hole Station that has a sign forbidding trespass at pain of a fine of 40 shillings.
And last, but not least, from Beck Hole back up to Goathland, there is an incline, a disused railway incline of moderate, steady, steepness, rather smooth, rather straight and a mile of it.
Directions
When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.
1 From North York Moors National Park car park, path towards village, left to pavement along main road (Whitby).
2 Left to railway station, cross gated tracks, if locked use footbridge, steps, white gate and immediately left to path (fingerpost Darnholm), uphill by wall, steps downhill, pass bench, small footbridge.
3 Fork right before wooden footbridge over river near houses, right to metalled track uphill (sign), 20 yards, path on left by stream to left (no sign), 20 yard, ignore footbridge on left to stepped path uphill, 50 yards, over stream on ‘stepping stones’. Path goes alongside stream then climbs above valley.
4 Under oak trees, path swings left to cross moor, 200 yards, ignore a track on the right, 100 yards, up to stile/fieldgate into field (waymark) but not through it.
5 Right uphill by fence, join track to house (Hawthorn Cottage) then path near wall, pass house, join track by wall, pass house, path downhill.
6 From wall corner, path downhill to the left of small field enclosure for 100 yards, right to path (waymarked post), 50 yards and fork left from enclosure to angle downhill, path fades.
7 Right to path by wall to your left, left to track downhill at Hill Farm Holiday Cottages, join road. Left to road over railway bridge, downhill 150 yards.
8 Option: follow road into hamlet for tiny pub and return. Otherwise before house: fieldgate on right (metal sign Egton Bridge), path.
9 Steps on left (fingerpost Rail Trail), gate, steps. Left to Rail Trail (fingerpost), smooth path, gated footbridge, (fingerpost).
10 Pass cottage, snickelgate, uphill on incline track, gate, cross road, snickelgate, snickelgate and right to road.
Fact File
Distance: Four miles.
General Location: North York Moors.
Start: Goathland.
Right of way: Public and permissive.
Dogs: Legal.
Date walked: June 2010.
Road route: From York via Pickering.
Car parking: National Parks car park and another.
Lavatories: Car park.
Refreshments: Inns and cafés.
Tourist and public transport information: Whitby TIC 01723 383636.
Map: Drawn from OS Explorer OL27 North York Moors eastern.
Terrain: Valley and Moor.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.
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