Hutton-le-Hole ~ Medium Walk

Distance: 4 miles   Time to complete walk: 2.5 hours

Safety Tips:  The part of the walk just before you enter Lastingham has a very sharp decline. Take care if there has been wet weather and when using the stepping stones to go over the beck make sure they are safe to walk on first.

A walk from the charming village of Hutton-le-Hole, which includes fields and woodland areas. The walk passes through the peaceful village of Lastingham and a detour to the church, which includes a Norman crypt is highly recommended. Both Hutton-le-Hole and Lastingham have some very nice places to eat so a pitstop either at the end of the walk or mid way through the walk are also highly recommended. There are some steep declines along the way so a walking stick will come in handy particularly after rainfall. A visit to the open air museum the Ryedale Folk Museum in Hutton-le-Hole is also a recommendation. 

 

The Hutton-Le-Hole walk



 



Getting There

 

From Middlesbrough, go to the top of Ormesby Bank and then head towards Stokesley. At the roundabout just outside Stokesley follow the B1257 to Great Broughton and follow it all the way to Helmsley. When you arrive at Helmsley take the turning to Scarborough which is the A170. Follow this road and look for the turn off for Hutton-le-Hole which is a left turning shortly after you pass through Kirbymoorside. Follow the road through Hutton-le-Hole and parking can be found at a right turning on the edge of the village, the parking is £4.50 for a longer stay if over 2 hours. 

 

 

 

Map of the Hutton-le-Hole walk

 

The Walk

 

From the car park follow the road back to pass a pub and the Ryedale Folk Museum. Look for the chapel and look for a well hidden signpost on the left just after it. Its easy to miss, its a small gate.

 

 

Footpath Sign



 

Keep to the path and walk past keeping to the left of the bowling green. Cross a series of fields on the well worn path and through a woodland area over a footbridge which passes over Fairy Call Beck.

 

 

Go over the footbridge 

 

Follow the path onto the road and walk ahead keeping on the grass verge near the road.

 

 

Join the road and follow it ahead

 

Look for a sharp bend in the road to the right and instead of following the road, join a track to the left.

 

 

 

Join the track to the left

 

Follow the track heading to the right and keeping the field boundary wall to your right. Keep on the track until you come to the farm buildings of Camomile Farm. 

 

 

Pass by Camomile Farm

 

Turn left away from the farm keeping the boundary wall to your right. Soon you will come to a steep decline and a beck. Be careful on the decline down the steep bank and use the stepping stones to cross the beck.

 

 

Stepping Stones

 

After crossing the beck look for a bench and then turn right onto a lane that heads into the village of Lastingham.

 

 

Follow the lane into Lastingham

  

Following the road down into Lastingham you can now turn right and make a slight detour off the walk to visit the Norman crypt at the parish church of St Mary. If you choose to a pit stop at one of the cafes this can be done as Lastingham is a particularly peaceful village.

 

 

The crypt at St Marys

 

When you re-join the route keep going on the lane down through Lastingham and look for a road to the right with some cottages on it. Follow the sound of water and at the end of the road just past the last cottage follow a path to the right and climb the path.

 

 

Climb the path

 



Climb the path which can get muddy In wet weather, keep following it at a waymark until you eventually come out onto a road. Turn right and at a set of junctions head right signposted to Spaunton.

 

 

 

Take the road to the right signed to Spaunton



Walk through the village of Spaunton until you come to a T junction. Turn right and then left into Grange Farm.

 

 

Turn left into Grange Farm

  

Follow the waymarks through the farm buildings and then join a track. Follow the track as it turns to the left and pass more farm buildings. Look for a signpost to the right and follow the track again.

 

 

 

Follow the track round and to the right

 

Now follow the waymarked track down which eventually goes downhill and through sparse woodland. Keep following the waymarks and you will eventually come to the road into Hutton-le-Hole. Turn right to get back to the car park or to visit the museum or for a bite to eat in Hutton-le Hole. (Using your GPS on your phone comes in handy for the last part of the walk however just following the waymarks is easy)

 

 

 

Ryedale Folk Museum

 

 



Hutton-le-Hole

 

Hutton-le-Hole is a small village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England, about seven miles (11.3 km) north-west of Pickering. Hutton-le-Hole is a popular scenic village within the North York Moors National Park. Sheep roam the streets at will.
The Merrills World Championships took place annually at the Ryedale Folk Museum in Hutton-le-Hole until 1997. The museum contains 13 rescued and reconstructed historic buildings, including an Iron Age round house, period shops, thatched cottages, an Elizabethan manor house, barns and workshops. They display the lives of ordinary people, up to the present day. There is a cafe, a shop, a gift shop and (in season) craft workshops.
The Quaker minister John Richardson died in Hutton-le-Hole in 1753 at the age of 87.

 

Lastingham is a village and civil parish which lies in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the southern fringe of the North York Moors, 5 miles (8.0 km) north-east of Kirkbymoorside, and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the east of Hutton-le-Hole. It was home to the early missionaries to the Angles, St. Cedd and his brother, St. Chad  At the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 96, increasing to 233(including Spaunton) at the 2011 Census.

There is reason to believe that the original name for Lastingham was Læstingau. Læstingau first appears in history when King Ethelwald of Deira (651-c.655) founded a monastery for his own burial. Bede attributes the initiative to Ethelwald's chaplain Caelin, a brother of Cedd, Chad and Cynibil. Bede records that Cedd and Cynibil consecrated the site, and that Cynibil built it of wood. Cedd ruled the monastery as the first abbot until his death, combining this position with that of missionary bishop to the East Saxons. In 664, shortly after the Synod of Whitby, in which he was a key participant, St. Cedd died of the plague at Læstingau. Bede records that a party of monks from Essex came to mourn him and all but one were all wiped out by the plague. Cedd was first buried outside the wooden monastery but, at some time between 664 and 732, a stone church was erected, and his body was translated to the right side of the altar. The crypt of the present parish church remains a focus for veneration of Cedd. His brother St. Chad took his place as abbot.
Not much is known of this house, though all who spoke of it spoke well. Perhaps the best indication of its standards is that, in 687, one of its graduates, Trumbert, transferred to Wearmouth-Jarrow and became scriptural tutor to a youthful Bede.
We have no knowledge of what became of the Anglo-Saxon house. Destruction by the Danes is nowhere attested, and seems to be entirely the product of modern conjecture. A start was made on rebuilding the monastery in 1078, when St. Stephen, prior of Whitby, and a band of monks moved from Whitby due to a disagreement with William de Percy, who was abbot of Whitby at the time.
They received support from King William 1 and Berenger de Todeni in the means of one carucate of land in Lastingham, six carucates at Spaunton, and other lands in Kirkby etc. They only remained for eight years however, due to persistent harassment by bandits. In 1086 they moved to York, and founded St. Mary's Abbey, to which they annexed the lands of the monastery at Lastingham.
There is a War Memorial.

 

 

Ribblehead Viaduct ~ Medium Walk

Distance: 5 miles   Time to complete walk: 2 hours

Safety Tips: Part of the walk is on a stream bed and can be marshy - take a walking stick and test the ground before you step on it.

A satisfying walk with the spectacular Ribblehead Viaduct as its focal point. This Victorian marvel is a great backdrop to the walk which includes walking on farm tracks and fields. At the very start and the end of the walk you get a brilliant close up of the viaduct which is fully functional and was the subject of the recent ITV drama Jericho. This is definitely a walk that train buffs will love! If there has been recent rain a walking stick is an essential accessory to take with you.

 

The Ribblehead Viaduct walk

 

Getting There

 

 

From Middlesbrough follow the A66 to Darlington and then head onto the A1

southbound. Look for the Harrogate turn off which is junction 47. Follow the A59 through Harrogate itself and then stay on the A59 to Skipton. When you come into Skipton itself you can take a pitstop and then double back out of Skipton on the A65 or alternatively you can drive through Skipton and turn right onto the A629 and then take the exit on the roundabout onto the A65. Follow the A65 into the village of Ingleton. Take a right turning into Ingleton and follow the B6255 to the Ribblehead Viaduct. Parking is can be found just after the road junction with the B6479.

 

 

 

 

Map of the Ribblehead Viaduct walk

 



The Walk

 

From the car park cross the road and follow the track signposted as the Whernside Trek. This will take you towards the Ribblehead Viaduct but at the start of the walk you will continue to pass by it.

 

 

Follow track that passes the viaduct

 



 

Continue your walk following the track to the side of the viaduct and a short climb so you are walking parallel to the railway line.

 

 

Follow path

 

 

Follow the path until you come to a railway signal and then go under the railway bridge to your left following the public bridleway sign.

 

 

 

Go under railway bridge

 

 

Follow the path down to a stream and then follow the path to the left parallel to the stream and head towards the farmhouse Winterscales.

 

 

 

Stay to the left of the stream

 

Head for Winterscales farm

 



Go through a gate to pass through the farm buildings and over a small humpback bridge below a cottage. Follow the lane over a cattle grid and then take the path that forks to the right which is almost straight ahead.

 

 

Pass cattle grid

 



Keep following the path to pass an isolated cowshed and continue onto the next farm which is Ivescar farm.

 

 

 

Pass by the cowshed

 

 

Walk past the farmhouse and through a gate and then bear left through a gate and walk across fields until you walk over a small bridge made from railway sleepers.

 

 

Go through gate

 

Go over small bridge made of railway sleepers

 

Immediately after the bridge turn right and follow the track to a small gate. Keeping a straight course walk over fields heading for Broadrake Farm.

 

 

Head towards the farm

 

 

When you reach the farm turn left down a track away from the farm. 

 



 

Turn left and follow track

 



When you come to a cattle grid and as the track bends to the right go over the cattle grid and then turn left round the fence onto a track to reach a bridleway sign which points you to a ladder stile.

 

 

 

Turn left after the cattle grid

 

Follow sign to the left

 



Go over the ladder stile and follow the track to cross a stream bed. Be careful on this part of the walk and use your walking stick to check you don't stand on marshland, you will be fine if walking during the summer.

 

 

Go over ladder stile

 



 

Stay on the track until you come to the stream bed and cross over it heading to the right of the stream. You will eventually come to a road which you should join.

 

 

 

Head to the right towards a road

 

Turn left onto the road

 



Back on solid ground, follow the road to the left and over a bridge. The Ribblehead Viaduct is now clearly ahead in the distance. Where the road divides go right towards the viaduct.

 

 

Go through gate to the right

 



Follow the road towards another farm and go through the gate and turn right over the footbridge to pass underneath the viaduct and back to the car park. 

 

 

Go through gate at the farm

 

Turn right and go over footbridge

 

 

 

Views of the Ribblehead Viaduct

Ribblehead Viaduct

The Ribblehead Viaduct or Batty Moss Viaduct carries the Settle-Carlisle Railway across Batty Moss in the valley of the River Ribble at Ribblehead, in North Yorkshire, England. The viaduct, built by the Midland Railway, is 28 miles (45 km) north-west of Skipton and 26 miles (42 km) south-east of Kendal It is a Grade II* listed structure.
The land underneath and around the viaduct is a scheduled ancient monument. The remains of the construction camp and navvy settlements (Batty Wife Hole, Sebastopol, and Belgravia) are located there.The viaduct was designed by engineer, John Sydney Crossley. The first stone was laid on 12 October 1870 and the last in 1874. One thousand navvies built the viaduct and established shanty towns on the moors for themselves and their families. They named the towns after Crimean War victories, well-to-do districts of London and biblical names. There were smallpox epidemics and deaths from industrial accidents. Around one hundred navvies were killed during its construction. There are around 200 burials of men, women, and children in the graveyard at Chapel-le-Dale dating from the time of its construction. The church has a memorial to the railway workers.
The line over the bridge was opened to goods traffic on 3 August 1875, but passenger trains did not commence running until 1 May 1876, following approval of the works by Colonel F. H. Rich, an Inspecting Officer of the Board of Trade.
In 1964, several brand new Humber cars landed on the ground after being blown off their wagons while being carried over the viaduct on a freight train.
Ribblehead Viaduct is 440 yards (400 m) long, and 104 feet (32 m) above the valley floor at its highest point. It is made up of twenty-four arches of 45 feet (14 m) span, with foundations 25 feet (7.6 m) deep. Every 6th pier is 50% thicker to mitigate against complete collapse should any pier fail. The north end of the viaduct is 13 feet (4.0 m) higher in elevation than the south end leading to a gradient of 1:100.1.5  million bricks were used in the construction and some of the limestone blocks weigh 8 tons each.
Ribblehead Viaduct is the longest on the Settle-Carlisle Railway. Ribblehead railway station is less than half a mile to the south and to the north is the Blea Moor Tunnel, the longest tunnel on line. It is near the foot of Whernside.
The Settle-Carlisle Line is one of three north-south main lines, along with the West Coast Main Line through Penrith and the East Coast Main Line via Newcastle. British Rail attempted to close the line in the 1980s, citing the reason that the viaduct was unsafe and would be expensive to repair. A partial solution was to single the line across the viaduct in 1985, preventing two trains from crossing simultaneously. A 30 mph speed limit is also in force. The closure proposals generated tremendous protest and were eventually retracted. The viaduct, along with the rest of the line, was repaired and maintained and there are no longer any plans to close it.
Two taller viaducts on the route are Smardale Viaduct at 131 feet (40 m) high and near to Crosby Garrett, and Arten Gill at 117 feet (36 m).
In 2016 the line and viaduct carries six passenger trains from Leeds to Carlisle per day in each direction, plus regular long distance excursions, many hauled by steam locomotives. Regular diesel-hauled heavy freight trains also use the route to help reduce congestion on the West Coast Main Line. Colas Rail operate a timber train most Friday afternoons which passes over the Viaduct when it departs its yard opposite Ribblehead railway station. The combination of the rarely seen timber train and the British Rail Class 56 locomotives used to pull the train has built quite an enthusiastic following.