Saturday last weekend was absolutely horrible. It was a day to batten down the hatches and try and catch up with the never ending mountain of washing (or, to curl up with a good book and a blanket). Sunday, however, was a totally different day: cold and clear, with blue skies and no wind. I feel like we’ve been lucky enough to have quite a few days like that over the course of the winter, and we’re never ones to look a gift horse in the mouth. It was Sam’s turn to pick a walk last week, and he chose a 9km circular walk linking up the Arnsgill Ridge and Cow Ridge in the north of the North York Moors from our Pocket Mountains guide.
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As we drove over on Sunday morning, the closer we got, the more blue started peeping out from between the clouds. What was originally forecast as a cloudy day turned into perfect weather for a walk!
There is a small lay-by with room for 3-4 cars to park at the start of the route. After driving past an extremely busy Square Corner at 9am I was a little worried we wouldn’t get parked, but it turned out we were the first ones there. The route starts out by following a quiet road for 400 metres or so, before picking up well surfaced moorland tracks which it sticks to for the entirety of the walk (what a welcome relief from all the muddy field paths at this time of year). After a bit of a climb (not too long or steep) we were up on Arnsgill Ridge and the blue sky made for a lovely view over the landscape.
Navigation is straightforward, mainly following the track and ignoring any turns off. After a few kilometres of easy walking, at a fork we took the right hand track, gradually descending past an old cottage to cross Arns Gill before another short climb back up to Cow Ridge on the other side of the valley. Happily Cow Ridge did not live up to its name, although we did see plenty of grouse, pheasants and sheep.
Again, the views from Cow Ridge were lovely, although we did wonder if we’d have enjoyed this walk as much as we did if the day had been grey and windy! After another few kilometres of flat ridge walking the track descends gradually to a quiet road, where we turned right to follow the road for a mile or so back to the car. Look out for an old lime kiln at the side of the road just before you get back to the car – a remnant of the Moors’ industrial heritage.
Dog friendly rating: 3.5/5. If your dog likes to chase birds (like Merry) you’ll need to keep them on a lead for the entirety of this walk. However, if (like Coal) your dog is not bothered by things with wings, you may be able to let your dog have some time off lead. As the moor here is so open, there was plenty of time where we could see clearly that there were no sheep around and so Coal got to have some time off lead – he always went back on when sheep appeared in the distance, even though he’s not bothered by them – it’s always better to be safe than sorry. There are no stiles which need to be climbed over, and there is an opportunity for dogs to have a splash in Arns Gill in one or two places. The road walking at the start and end is extremely quiet: we only saw a few cars and they were all travelling pretty slowly.
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