Sutton Bank to Osmotherley

Wednesday 11th June 2008

14 miles of walking, 11 miles on Cleveland Way

We woke to a sunny morning. Rain threatened later on, but it stayed dry all day. We were introduced to Tina (the other walker following the Cleveland Way) at breakfast then she left and we chatted with Mrs Jeffrey - I noticed an Open University MBA graduation photograph and it turned out to Mrs Jeffrey's daughter. We collected our packed lunches and left just before 9am.

We retraced our steps along the path to the edge of the escarpment and turned right to Sutton Bank. We crossed the main road then continued along Sutton Brow, with Gormire Lake (the only natural lake on the North York Moors, formed when water was blocked by a landslide at the end of the Ice Age) below us. We passed Whitestone Cliff (also known as White Mare Crag) and Boltby Scar, then crossed a very minor round at Sneck Yate ('yate' means 'gate') and entered a forestry plantation. This took us past Low Paradise Farm then we joined a road and climbed up to High Paradise Farm, and thence to the old drovers road (Hambleton Road).

We followed the drovers' road for several miles, through Boltby Forest then past a long barrow. There was a rather monotonous wall to our left (which Tina reported later that she really didn't like) but it didn't bother us too much - there were lovely views beyond. We turned left at White Gill Head and soon afterwards stopped for lunch, sitting on a conveniently situated low section of the wall (probably meant to be a horse jump) watching a bird with a long beak circling above the heather and listening to the 'geback, geback' of a red grouse.

After lunch we passed Black Hambleton, which dominated the view behind us for some time. The rest of the descent into Osmotherley was fiddly, but pretty. We passed off the limestone, to be on sandstone, grits and shales for the rest of the path. A paved section of path brought us to the two little reservoirs at Oak Dale - work was going on here; they appeared to be moving large stones from above the upper reservoir to the vicinity of the lower reservoir. Then we went over farmland and down to a lovely wooded area and a footbridge over Cod Beck, up the other side and through passageways to the main street of Osmotherley.

We found Vane House and had our passports stamped at the Post Office, but it was still only about 2.30pm, so we decided to walk down to Mount Grace Priory. We visited Mount Grace some years ago and were fascinated by the individual cells of the Carthusian Order. The walk to the Priory from Osmotherley was level to start with (along a track and across fields) then distinctly downhill - across another field and through very pretty woodland. So it was something of a disappointment to find Mount Grace Priory firmly shut (it is open Thursday to Monday - and we tried to visit on a Wednesday!). We climbed back up the hill and met Tina on her way down, so we were able to prevent her from making the same mistake.

Tina told us about the Lady Chapel, up above the Cleveland Way on its way out of Osmotherley, so we climbed up the hill to the Cleveland Way, turned right, then left up a track to the Lady Chapel, past 15 little crosses marking the way. The details of the foundation of the Lady Chapel are unknown, but it is reputed to have been founded by Catherine of Aragon (the Queen Catherine Hotel in Osmotherley echoes the connection). It was linked to the Carthusian Order at Mount Grace but fell into disrepair. It was rebuilt in 1961 and is now in the care of the Benedictine monks from Ampleforth.