Saturday 16th September 2000
( weather: fine & fresh )
Today's walk: Chop Gate - Raisdale - Barker's Ridge - Trennet Bank
( 5 miles )
Today we were
joined on our walk by three lovely visitors to the North York
Moors from America -
Thann and his wife Jennifer from Charlottesville, and Jennifer's
sister, Ginger, from Seattle
Our walk began at the public car park at Chop Gate ( 'Chop Yat' to locals) - Grid Ref: 558 993
From the car park
turn left and walk back towards the village passing the Buck Inn
and the village school -
just past the school turn left along the quiet, narrow Raisdale
Road (above)
At this time of
year in the moors villages you can often hear the sound of
'leather on willow'
as the locals while away the afternoon playing a game of cricket
On the opposite side of the road the sheep spend a lazy day grazing the lush, ' green grass of home '
After about a mile
of road walking we turn left and pass between the buildings of
Raisdale Mill before joining Mill Lane
( signposted Green Lane ) and climb the pleasant, shady track up
towards Barker's Ridge
By the side of the
lane are several excellent examples of ' five-bar gateposts' - in
days gone by, there were no such
things as hinged gates. Instead, the gates were designed in such
a way that wooden poles could be inserted into 'slots'
carved into the stone gateposts forming a barrier very much like
a modern day 'horse show-jumping fence'
Some of these gateposts are hundreds of years old
A little further on up the lane we enjoy lovely views south-east across Raisdale towards Bilsdale
On reaching
Barker's Ridge at the top of Mill Lane we turn left along a wide
track and are soon rewarded
with fine views north-east towards the forest covered southern
slopes of Cringle Moor (left)
and further right, the ridge of Cold Moor
From the other side of the track we can look west across Scugdale towards, in the afternoon haze, the distant Pennines
Here we look
north-east once more and get a glimpse of Roseberry Topping
peeping up
between Cringle and Cold Moors
You will often come
across standing stones such as this on the North York Moors -
Many are boundary stones with the initials of the landowner
carved on the side of the stone
I don't know the
purpose of the occasional carved 'hole' you sometimes come across
in some of these stones -
perhaps someone might be kind enough to inform me with the
relevant information
Having enjoyed the
spectacular views from Barker's Ridge we turn left at a junction
of tracks and soon
arrive at the prominent standing stone and cairn of Cock Howe
At Cock Howe we turn left, heading east, as our path passes a series of plain wooden grouse-shooting butts . . .
. . . before
reaching the edge of Trennet Bank where we enjoy spectacular
views north-east
across Bilsdale with the village of Chop Gate nestled in the
valley far below
We near the end our
walk down the steep slopes of Trennet Bank as the late afternoon
sun throws
a dramatic light across the idyllic scene of a typical English
village - a game of cricket, a field of grazing sheep,
the red pantiled roofs of sandstone walled buildings
One of them is the
Buck Inn where we enjoyed a lovely bar meal with our new friends
Thann, Jennifer and Ginger from America - our thanks go to them
for helping make it a perfect afternoon's walk
........
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