Distance Covered: 9 miles Time to Complete Walk 4 hours
Suitable for dog walking: No
Climb the Ingleby Incline a steep former railway path which takes you up to the moors for a moors walk and then descend back down to ground level. Great if you love a challenge and like the history connected it. Trains used to transport iron ore and the surrounding area is steeped in its history.
General Safety Tips:
The steep gradient can take up to 20 minutes to climb - a good level of fitness is needed. The moors path is exposed to the elements- dress appropriately. The descent down is steep and on loose gravel in parts- take a walking stick to navigate the path down.
The Ingleby Incline Walk
Getting There
From Middlesbrough head towards Great Ayton. Follow the road out of Great Ayton towards the moors on Easby Lane and towards Kildale. Take a right hand turn and follow the road to Ingleby Greenhow. Head out of the village on Stone Soup Hill and look for a left turn into Battersby Junction and the station. Parking can be found on the roadside before the station. Alternatively take the Esk Valley line train which stops at Battersby Station.
Maps of the Ingleby Incline walk
The Walk
From the station head out following the road you came on passing the terraced houses.
Turn right at the T Junction and follow the road until you reach the first left hand turn and follow the road to the left.
Follow the road until you come to Bank Foot farm.
At a signpost for a cycle route before the farm turn right and head on the path.
Climb the Incline which should take 20 minutes or so and there is incredible views all around.
Head through the gate for another short steep climb to the moors at the top.
At the top look out for a minature sculpture of the old railway and then head out on the path on the moors.
The moorland path is a clear path and follow it until and keep ahead when a path curves in from the right.
Soon you come to a junction and the Cleveland Way comes in from the right. Do a sharp turn to the left to join the Cleveland Way.
This moorland path goes on for quite some time with some lovely views around and is a very peaceful walk.
When you come to a signpost head straight ahead which will take you on a path that descends back down from the moors with Roseberry Topping in the distance.
Follow the path down carefully as it can be rough in places until you arrive at a gate.
Follow this path as it makes its way down until you come to another gate.
Go through the gate and head toward Bank Foot farm and keep ahead to follow the road back to Battersby station.
Ingleby Incline
The Rosedale Railway was a 19+1⁄2-mile (31.4 km) goods-only railway line running from Battersby Junction via Ingleby Incline, across the heights of the North York Moors in North Yorkshire, England to reach iron ore deposits in the remote hills of the Rosedale valley. It opened to traffic as a narrow gauge railway to Ingleby Incline top in 1858, converted to standard gauge and opened to Rosedale West in 1861, and closed completely in 1929. Apart from Ingleby Incline, no major engineering works were constructed, and as such, particularly the east branch, the railway followed the contours of the surrounding hillside. The former trackbeds of the railway are in use by walkers and cyclists.
The first construction of a recognisable railway along this route was in 1858 when The Ingleby Ironstone & Freestone Mining Company constructed a narrow gauge line to link existing mining operations with the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Railway at Battersby (then known as Ingleby Junction). An Act of Parliament in 1859 (that covered the amalgamation into the NER of the line to Kildale and the Rosedale Railway),meant that the NER became responsible for the lines in the area in August 1859, when the branch was still 18 months from completion. Because of the difference in height between the junction at Battersby railway station and the moorland location of the workings, a steep 1 in 5 (20%) incline was located at Ingleby, where trucks would be hauled up the slope to a height of 1,200 feet (370 m) above sea level using the weight of descending full wagons. The wagons descended at an average speed of 20 mph (32 km/h) which resulted in a journey time of 3 minutes from top to bottom
When the NY&CR had been absorbed into the NER, the NER decided to convert the line to standard gauge operations and extend the track 10 miles (16 km) from the top of the incline to mine workings at Rosedale run by the Rosedale Ironstone Mining Company, whom the NER had interests in.This line opened to the west side of Rosedale on 27 March 1861, costing £24,500 Within a few years mining also began on the east side of the valley, and an additional branch line was run from Blakey Junction around the head of the valley to reach the new workings. This was initially started by the railway company, but was completed by the NER and opened to traffic in August 1865. The branch to the east mines ran northwards from Blakey Junction for 1.2 miles (2 km) before curving eastwards and southwards, following the contours of the hillside. It dropped with a consistent gradient of 1-in-50 all the way from Blakey to Rosedale East The mines at Rosedale East, Rosedale West and Blakey, were connected to the standard gauge line by tramways or narrow gauge railways. Only Sheriff Pit, which had a downshaft (the others being drift mines), had sidings directly onto the main running line.
The workings reached a peak production of over 560,000 long tons (569,000 tonnes) in 1873. Wagons containing ore were weighed at the weigh bridge located at Ingleby Incline foot, with all associated paperwork being dealt with at Battersby. Whilst there was a small goods station at Rosedale East, apart from come coal traded from that goods depot with the village of Rosedale Abbey, the branch was focussed on the iron ore trade. Passenger carrying was strictly limited to the families of the railwaymen and miners who worked in Rosedale. Trains would convey them to either Middlesbrough or Stockton and on the return, they would be carried up Ingleby Incline on the buffer beams of wagons, so that they need not walk up with their shopping.
The railway had two engine sheds; one was at the Rosedale West end of the line and consisted of two roads. A second shed was provided at Battersby Junction and had three roads in the shed, with two on the outside, one with a water tank and the other with a turntable. Engines working the line consisted of NER 1001 Class locomotives, which were eventually replaced with NER Class P, with just three examples latterly working the section of the line from the Incline top to Rosedale. Hoole and Huby (see Sources, below) reported that there was no signalling on the line but documentary evidence and the Ordnance Survey maps indicate that this was not the case. The line was divided into three single-line "Staff and Ticket" sections; Incline top to Blakey Junction, Blakey Junction to Rosedale West and Blakey Junction to Rosedale East. Each section had a metal token (the "staff" - actually metal rings with one, two or three links) that needed to be in the possession of the engine driver to allow them to work the line.
Just south of the incline top was Bloworth Crossing (also known variously as Blowoth, Blawith, Blowith) which had a permanently staffed crossing over an ancient trackway. Bloworth Crossing is still marked on mapping today and forms part of the Cleveland Way, the Coast to Coast, and the Lyke Wake Walk.
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