Rest Day

Introduction Helmsley Hambleton Inn Rest Day Osmotherley Great Broughton

Osmotherley in the afternoon haze (from the east)

Kildale Saltburn-by-the-sea Port Mulgrave Whitby Ravenscar Scarborough

This day was spent fairly lazily, just exploring around Osmotherley. Another reason to have a break here was to visit the Park House Outdoor Centre and pick up information about the Coast to Coast Trail (since I was in the area).

I started by following the CW up Ruebury Lane and into South Wood. At the edge of South Wood I left the CW for a forest road heading downhill and took the first turning heading to the bottom of the hill. I could have turned left at the T-junction at the bottom to visit the ruins of Mount Grace Priory (founded in 1398, closed in 1539 in Henry VIII's Dissolution of the monasteries). These are the most compete and extensive ruins of the nine Carthusian houses in England - noted for the reconstruction of an austere monks cell. However I was not that interested so I turned right along the woods edge. If you do visit the priory by this route (or via a wide grass path branching off the track at the first turn) then remember to pay your admission fee at the office.

After a kilometre along the forest road, I came to the outdoor centre and brought a guide to the Coast to Coast Trail and a list of accommodation along it. I walked beyond the centre to the lane heading west to Arncliffe Hall. From there I headed back south along a path that climbed until it joined a forest road along Tire Bank and was soon back on the CW.

The CW climbed up a clay bank to the top of the hill and followed the escapement to the top of Beacon Hill where there are good views across the plains to the Pennine hills. A nice slow stroll across Scarth Wood Moor and I reached Scarth Nick and the Osmotherley to Swainby road. Here I turned my back on the CW and headed back south along the road. There were nice views down the valley towards Osmotherley with the waters of Cod Beck Reservoir in the foreground. The carpark at the head of the reservoir is the usual starting point for those intrepid people doing the Lyke Wake Walk - a 24 hour challenge walk over 67 kilometres (42 miles) across the centre of of the moors to Ravenscar on the coast. The popularity of the walk has caused some serious erosion in some parts of the moors so people are encouraged to think twice about doing it.

The footbridge across Cod Beck gives an opportunity to look upstream into the small dales of Pamperdale and Crabdale - well worth exploring. I continued up a broad rising track (High Lane) to the upper edge of the plantation above the reservoir. The edge of the plantation was followed for a little over a kilometre before the trees were left behind me. In another 500 metres I came to a path to my left. I could have continued past Solomon's Temple and Chequers Farmhouse to join the CW in another kilometre. But that looked a bit too much for a rest day so I took the left turn down past Rookhaw and onto the Green Lane track. The photo at the top of the page was taken from here.

The CW was joined by proceeding south down the lane and I was soon back into Osmotherley for a welcome pint.