Country walk near Lord Stones (From Gazette & Herald)

Country walk near Lord Stones

12:21pm Saturday 29th January 2011 in Country walks By George Wilkinson

GEORGE WILKINSON sets off from the café at Lord Stones – and no, he doesn’t know why they are called that either.

Lords Stones Café glowed through the mist. Two horses were tethered outside. They’d been ridden up from Kirby in Cleveland, not a good day said the riders. Flyers, their canvas wings rolled on roof racks, agreed.

Inside in the underground café, the stove glowed and warming food was propelled to the tables. “I just open the door and they flood in,” said the owner; they being a tough crew, bar us.

We left the Lord Stones, and I don’t know why they are so named, and headed for Brian’s Pond; I don’t know the life of said Brian either, but it might sound cheerful.

The mile through the mist of Bilsdale West Moor was subdued. I like the mist and this version did not swirl but blew in constant from the north, reducing visibility to a hundred yards, rubbing out any compass of brightness in the sky.

The pond is good, black water fringed by spiky rushes and with a small bright green beach of sphagnum moss. A pair of geese flew over low, noisily moaning perhaps at humans at Brian’s Pond in such weather, or perhaps worried our sticks were guns. For indeed Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz, a great pioneer and populariser of modern animal behaviour, though the greylag goose the brainiest of birds.

We didn’t have to worry about our next move, just think and search a bit, because the footpath east from the pond had been erased by the block burning of heather. But we caught our line, intersecting with grouse butts of the wooden pallet variety that carried small adverts for Sportsman Game Feeds, a Devon firm.

At the far edge of the moor the ground dips sharply into Raisdale and there’s a good view of how this valley splits to the north and joins with Bilsdale a little south.

In this lower air, visibility was fair to middling, enough to see 50 pigeon circle and two geese, perhaps the two, high and headed north, from which direction came a volley of shotguns; but the guns will have been after the last pheasants of the season.

Our return through Raisdale was nicely smallscale, with little streams, copses and woods and stone-walled pastures, many with old stone gateposts; plus new gates for the farmer and us, and a sequence of fresh yellow waymarks.

A buzzard surfed the roll of mist; in the valley the sheep surrounded their afternoon hay and a farm goose gave us a honk.

Directions

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. From Lord Stones Café, right to road, 100 yards, paved path on left (fingerpost Huthwaite Green 3 miles) Cleveland Way, uphill, 200 yards.

2. Left to track (info board, fingerpost bridleway) and immediately fieldgate/gate. Uphill 3. Just before right hand bend path on left (fingerpost bridleway, and opposite a footpath waymark).

4. Left to track at waymarked post. Here to keep to law, dog walkers could take a thin path through heather that rejoins track.

5. Pass waymark post, 50 yards, left at track T-junction.

6. From Brian’s Pond, retrace steps along track for 300 yards, right and east (small cairn) across moor following ‘track marks’ through heather, ignore white tipped post to left, connect with path, ignore white tipped post to right. Downhill.

7. At grouse butt number nine, angle ignore a left fork and carry straight on downhill and pass grouse butt number 11, path becomes sunken, then steep downhill.

8. Gate in wall (waymark), 100 yards downhill to pass to right of shed, left 100 yards, fieldgate (waymark), 11 o’clock to cross field with tiny stone footbridges, gate (waymark), cross field, fieldgate (waymark), 1 o’clock, gateway, track.

9. Into farmyard and out to right of barns, track, fieldgate (waymark) leave track at bend for fieldgate ahead (waymark), grass track, fieldgate, fieldgate (waymark), dip.

10. Fieldgate (waymark) by trees and stream and immediately left and uphill (waymark) by fence, (waymark and fingerpost by trees), fenced path up bank, 11 o’clock across field, stile/fieldgate (waymark fingerpost) grass track, fieldgate (waymark), (three-way fingerpost) 100 yards, fieldgate (waymark), pass house. Left to road to café.

Fact file

Distance: Four miles.

General location: North York Moors.

Start: Lord Stones Café.

Right of way: Public.

Dogs: Legal with a little diversion.

Date walked: January 2011.

Road route: From York via A19 north.

Car parking: Café for patrons, otherwise roadside.

Lavatories: Café for patrons.

Refreshments: Café, closed Mondays.

Tourist and public transport information: Great Ayton TIC 01642 722835.

Map: OS Explorer OL26 North York Moors western area.

Terrain: Moor and valley.

Difficulty: Moderate if clear.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.

View a map of the Lord Stones country walk>>