Monday 1st May 2000
( sunny and pleasant - cooler on the moor )
Today's Walk: Glaisdale ( 6 miles )
The view east across glorious Glaisdale with Glaisdale Moor on the left
The lovely valley of Glaisdale can easily be missed without you knowing - even visitors to the village of Glaisdale might come away and wonder where the dale was - no major roads pass by it. Some glimpses can just be seen from the main A171 moor road between Guisborough and Whitby but to see the valley in its entirety you need to either get your walking boots on or drive along the little narrow, winding road that serves the farms and cottages in the valley bottom
Today's walk starts at The Green in Glaisdale village ( Grid Ref: 774 058 )
There's ample parking nearby on the grass verges - after a glorious spring display a few daffs are still hanging on
From The Green we head south-west up a narrow little road and then out onto Glaisdale Moor following this excellent track
The gently rising track is a pleasure to walk and soon passes this pond near old stone quarries
I was surprised to read that the sandstone from the quarries at Glaisdale was used to build Waterloo Bridge
About a mile further on, and just off the track to the right, is this memorial stone overlooking Eskdale to the north
The inscription reads:
MRS STAINTHORPE
NEE GEORGINA RAWDON-SMITH
1914-1967
'SHE LOVED THESE MOORS'
If these walkers
take any notice of the wording on this stone, 'WHITBY ROAD',
they're in for a disappointment
- they're going the wrong way
Near a 'crossroads' of tracks we get a good view of Glaisdale Head (left) and our dead straight route ahead (right)
About half a mile
further on at Grid Ref: 741 041 we turn left along a bridleway
and head south down into the dale
enjoying glorious views east along the dale (see top photo)
. . . . . 
The path down from
the moor becomes a bit indistinctive and today, after all the
recent rain, we had to side-step
a rather wet & marshy section before reaching the gate in the
left-hand photo and descending steeply down
a couple of fields towards Yew Grange - the right-hand photo is
looking back up to Glaisdale Rigg from half-way down
On reaching the road at the bottom we reach the junction of Caper Hill and the dale road
Here we find this
direction sign that brings back fond memories - you can tell how
old it is by the wording
'YORKS NORTH RIDING C C' - straight out of 'Heartbeat' !
Don't go up Caper Hill but carry on ahead along the dale road towards Yew Grange
. . . . . 
Yew Grange and its lovely gardens are the sort of places where you think to yourself, "If only I could win the lottery . . . ."
. 
As we walk along the quiet road we find the valley bottom is dotted with working farms and picturesque holiday cottages . . .
. . . with such glorious views as this
As we continue, the dale road is very quiet, believe me - today we saw less then half a dozen cars in 1½ hours
Further on we see a
recently built and fine example of the art of 'dry stone
walling', typical of so many in Yorkshire
- these walls will withstand the storms for hundreds of years
As we near the village of Glaisdale we come across this typical English country garden spring scene . . .
. . . and then the Parish Church of St Thomas the Apostle
Reluctantly we say goodbye to the spring lambs of Glaisdale until another day at the end of a glorious afternoon's walk
........
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