Roseberry Topping ~ Hard Walk

Distance Covered: 5 miles   Time to complete walk: 3 hours

Safety Tips: At the very start of the walk there is a serious climb up to the Monument. In wet weather the track can be very slippery and muddy. A walking stick is essential. Roseberry Topping can be a hard challenge for some, the route of this walk takes the easier path to the summit.

Climb to the summit of two of North Yorkshires landmarks, Captain Cooks Monument followed by Roseberry Topping on this exhilarating walk that includes two steep inclines with astounding views of Cleveland. This walk is challenging with some very steep parts and should take around 3 hours to complete.

 

The Roseberry Topping Walk

 

 

 



Getting There

 

From Middlesbrough go up Ormesby Bank and then turn left at the roundabout at the top onto Guisborough Road. At the first roundabout turn right to head to Great Ayton. Follow the signs for the railway station. Parking can be found in the train station car park where the walk starts.

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Map of the Roseberry Topping walk

 

 



The Walk

 

From the station car park go up the steps and through the white gate. Turn right and almost immediately turn right again along a short lane with a chicken farm to your left.

 

 



 

Steps down from the station

 



As you enter the next field turn left at the junction of cart tracks. Turn right onto a lane that soon becomes a path heading towards the lower moors which at first has hedges on either side and then trees later on. As the slope eases look for a yellow arrow to the left and follow this track up the slope.

 

 

Track leading up the slope

 

This track will take you into the forest near a bench and through a gate. Take the middle of three tracks making your way up what becomes a very steep track and keep going crossing over a forest track on the climb. This part of the walk is the most challenging as it is very steep.

 

 

Take the middle track

 

The steep track has steps and eventually levels out onto a more manageable track. Captain Cooks Monument should soon come into view.

 

 

Captain Cooks Monument

 

 

After a visit to the monument and some welcome respite, turn left away from the monument and head down the path which will eventually end at a picnic site. You will be able to see Roseberry Topping in the distance.

 

 

From the carpark near the picnic site turn right and then follow the Cleveland Way signpost up a stepped track.

 

 

Path up to the moors

 

 

Again you will be able to get some great views of Roseberry Topping, your destination. Follow the moor track for some time until you come to a gate to the left at the angle of the wall.

 

 



 

Gate to the left

 

 

Walk downhill on the path towards Roseberry Topping. The zigzagging path up the summit will be coming into view as will the Monument to your left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get ready for the climb to the summit of Roseberry Topping making sure you use the zig zagging route upwards. When you reach the summit you will have astounding views of Teesside and Guisborough.

 

 

Views from Roseberry Topping

 

 

Walk carefully downhill by a path to the left and you will eventually come to a track. Turn left and head towards the farm track. Follow this past the farm Aireyholme Farm.

 

 

 

Path from the summit and farm track

 

Follow the path from the farm downhill until you eventually come onto Dikes Lane. Turn right and over the railway bridge a bit further on and back through the white gate into the station car park.

 

Roseberry Topping

 

 

Roseberry Topping is a distinctive hill in northern Yorkshire, England. It is situated near Great Ayton and Newton under Roseberry. Its summit has a distinctive half-cone shape with a jagged cliff, which has led to many comparisons with the much higher Matterhorn in Switzerland.It forms a symbolic image of the area and featured as the logo for the now defunct county of Cleveland.
At 1,049 feet (320 m), Roseberry Topping was traditionally thought to be the highest hill on the North York Moors; however, the nearby Urra Moor is higher, at 1,490 feet (450 m). It offers views of Captain Cook's Monument at Easby Moor and the monument at Eston Nab.
The hill is an outlier of the North York Moors uplands. It is formed from sandstone laid down in the Middle and Lower Jurassic periods, between 208 and 165 million years ago, which constitutes the youngest sandstone to be found in any of the National Parks in England and Wales. Its distinctive conical shape is the result of the hill's hard sandstone cap protecting the underlying shales and clays from erosion by the effects of ice, wind and rain.
Until 1912, the summit resembled a sugarloaf until a geological fault and possibly nearby alum and ironstone mining caused its collapse. The area immediately below the summit is still extensively pitted and scarred from the former mineworks. The summit has magnificent views across the Cleveland plain as far as the Pennines on a clear day, some 40 to 50 miles (60 to 80 km) away.



The Roseberry area has been inhabited for thousands of years and the hill has long attracted attention for its distinctive shape. A Bronze Age hoard was discovered on the slopes of the hill and is now in the Sheffield City Museum. It was occupied during the Iron Age; walled enclosures and the remains of huts dating from the period are still visible in the hill's vicinity.
The hill was perhaps held in special regard by the Vikings who settled in Cleveland during the early medieval period and gave the area many of its place names. They gave Roseberry Topping its present name: first attested in 1119 as Othenesberg, its second element is accepted to derive from Old Norse bjarg ('rock'); the first element must be an Old Norse personal name, Auðunn or Óðinn, giving 'Auðunn's/Óðinn's rock'. If the latter, Roseberry Topping is one of only a handful of known pagan names in England, being named after the Norse god Odin and paralleled by the Old English name Wodnesberg, found for example in Woodnesborough. The name changed successively to Othensberg, Ohenseberg, Ounsberry and Ouesberry before finally settling on Roseberry. "Topping" is a Yorkshire dialect derivation of Old English topp, 'top (of a hill)'.^[ The naming of the hill may thus fit a well-established pattern in Continental Europe of hills and mountains being named after Odin or the Germanic equivalent, Wodan. Ælfric of Eynsham, writing in the 10th century, recorded how "the heathens made him into a celebrated god and made offerings to him at crossroads and brought oblations to high hills for him. This god was honoured among all heathens and he is called ... Oðon in Danish.
In 1736, the explorer James Cook's family moved to Airey Holme Farm at nearby Great Ayton. When he had time off from working on the farm with his father, young James would take himself off up Roseberry Topping, which gave him his first taste for adventure and exploration, which was to stay with him for life.
Roseberry Topping can be seen from many miles away and was long used by sailors and farmers as an indicator of impending bad weather. An old rhyme commemorates this usage:

When Roseberry Topping wears a cap, let Cleveland then beware of a clap!

The hill was private property for many years, formerly being part of a game estate owned by the Cressy family. In the early 18th century, Dorothea Cressy married Archibald Primrose, who was later made Earl of Rosebery in recognition of the hill. Roseberry Topping is now managed by the National Trust and is open to the public. It is just within the North York Moors National Park whose border runs along the A173 road below it.
A spur of the Cleveland Way National Trail runs up to the summit. The path has been a popular sight-seeing excursion for centuries due to the spectacular views of the Cleveland area from the summit; as early as 1700, travellers were recommended to visit the peak to see "the most delightful prospect upon the valleys below to the hills above."
The site was notified as a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1954, with a boundary extension in 1986 bringing the designated area to 10.86 hectares. The site is listed as being of national importance in the Geological Conservation Review
During the Napoleonic Wars, the Wensleydale volunteers responded to a false alarm when the beacon on Penhill in North Yorkshire was lit in response to a supposed lit beacon on Roseberry Topping, 40 miles distant. This turned out to be burning heather. From "Wensleydale", p. 176, by Ella Pontefract, pub. 1936.