In a similar vein to my frequent declarations that we need to spend more time in the North Pennines, I’m often saying that we need to spend more time in the North York Moors. They really aren’t too far from us, so there’s no real excuse for not getting over there more. This year we’re really making an effort to explore more in the 90 minute radius around our local area, instead of day tripping to the Lakes every time there’s a sunny day.
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It was my turn to pick a walk this time, and with the beautiful sunshine forecast also came higher temperatures. While I wasn’t too concerned for the dogs at around 19-20 degrees celsius, I was conscious that they’re probably still acclimatising to the warmer weather and so I chose a route which we could get around in a morning, before it started to heat up too much.
This was a 7km circular route from our Pocket Mountains guide to the North York Moors. It’s actually a walk both of us had put forward before, only to end up going somewhere else. Starting in the lovely village of Kepwick, the walk is fairly short but very varied, taking in grassy fields, woodland and open moor. Altogether it took us about two hours and we barely saw a soul other than a few mountain bikers. Our favourite kind of walk!
Parking is free in a small car park near the church in Kepwick. This was totally empty when we arrived, and we spent a while debating if this was actually the car park or if it was part of a farmer’s yard (thank you to the nice man who confirmed that it was indeed the car park). While we got there early to beat the heat, it was still completely empty when we got back two hours later, so I don’t think this is somewhere that gets massively busy.
Following a short walk down the road to leave the village, we picked up a footpath to climb uphill through a field. There were quite a few cows in the field with us, including calves and a bull, but they were a good distance away and weren’t too interested in us at all. I feel like I’ve come a long way in my cow phobia as I actually felt rather relaxed! Maybe it was the warmth.
The book notes that this section can be muddy, but with the recent dry spell it was bone dry for us. Passing through a gate at the top of the field, the climb continues steadily until it levels off on a flat grassy area. We (unintentionally) timed this visit really well, as this part of the route features some pretty rhododendrons which were in full bloom. Looking back as we climbed gave far reaching views, although the blue sky always helps make everything extra nice. It probably wouldn’t have lit my brain up in the same way on a cloudy day!
The walk changed gear here, switching from open views for miles in all directions to skirting through the fringes of woodland, until it eventually cut through the edge of Boltby Forest. This was my favourite part of the walk: it was so quiet and peaceful, with no noise other than chattering birdsong and a reasonably close by cuckoo, and the light was just stunning – the photos really don’t do it justice.
Boltby is one of my favourite local places to go for a dog walk and features on my blog post about the best woodland walks in North Yorkshire. This visit did nothing to detract from my favourable opinion. Soo much green, good paths, dappled sunlight and not a person to be seen.
We’d spent much of this time steadily climbing on and off, and we eventually emerged from the trees onto the Cleveland Way. I felt like the track we were on looked familiar, and then realised we were crossing Arden Great Moor, which we’d also crossed on a longer walk a few years ago. It’s very open here and I expect you’d get a battering if the wind was up. Happily, it was pretty still, and with the gradient flattening completely we set off at a steady march across the moor. This was the first day this year I’d worn my shorts, on and I was feeling extremely smug that I had!
1.5km later we were approaching our exit point when we spotted a high-viz sign reading ‘you’re not even a third of the way there!’. Curiosity piqued, we asked the lady manning a small gazebo what was going on, and she told us (while giving the dogs a big fuss and a treat each) that there was a marathon on. What a cracking day for it!
The final leg of the walk is down a quiet lane. So quiet, in fact, that we didn’t see any cars at all. Possibly because it doesn’t lead anywhere other than the moor we’d just exited. It winds its way downhill, more steeply in places than the outward inclines, but it’s over pretty quickly and in next to no time we were back at the car.
Dog friendly rating: 4/5. This is a great dog walk, and I think it will be getting added to our roster of regular walks. It’s stile free, and the woodland sections offer an opportunity for a decent amount of off-lead time. Should you do this in warmer weather, I’d recommend carrying some water for your dog, as there is next to no water on the walk for them to have a drink. Leads should be on around livestock (sheep and cows), and respect signs asking for dogs to be kept on leads around ground nesting birds, too.
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