Yorkshire walks – Cloughton to Hayburn Wyke
26 May 2005
We didn't return the way we'd come, but instead walked back to Cloughton via a path that runs along the course of the old Yorkshire Coast Railway.
As
we ascended from Hayburn Wyke, along the path previously travelled, this
gate into a field showed the alternative route back.
For more information, and maps, see the foot of the page.
There are so many carefully-crafted gates and stiles, but this one is particularly handsome, with a beautifully shaped vertical piece that was just the right height to grab hold of (for me, anyway), to assist with climbing over the stile. This, as the sign indicates, marks the other boundary to Hayburn Wyke.
From here, we cross a field, to emerge near the Hayburn Wyke Hotel. There's an access road then, to the left, which takes us to the Yorkshire Coast Railway track.
The track is marked here by a milepost in a striking design, by Andrew Rowe. The milepost indicates that we are 15 miles from Whitby and three and a half miles from Ravenscar. It also tells us that it is one of 1,000 mileposts funded by the Royal Bank of Scotland to mark the creation of the Sustrans National Cycle Network.
This side of the milepost indicates that we are eight and a half miles from Scarborough. (Thankfully, as it's been a long and arduous walk, we are returning to Cloughton, much nearer than Scarborough.)
Information on the mileposts on the cycle network
can be found at www.cycleroutes.org
– Hadrian's Cycleway
It's difficult to lose your way from this point, as the path is clearly carved into the landscape, being the route of an old railway line. No trains along here now of course, but a few friendly cyclists and horse riders, and one car, presumably travelling to the solitary residence we passed alongside the track.
The path begins under a dense canopy of leaves, but later there are views of open countryside, between the shrubs and trees on either side of the track. Here, the evening sunlight on a late spring day, over green fields.
And here, on the other side of the track, looking across the fields of the bright yellow rape seed crop, with the sea visible on the horizon.
The
railway line cycle path meets a road, and here we rejoined the farm road
on which we started our walk, around three hours earlier. This narrow road
takes us back to the crossroads at Cloughton.
Earlier, in my eagerness to see the sea, I hadn't noticed this dry stone
wall, and the bright lichens growing on it. In the foreground, our common
countryside weed, cow parsley. Taken for granted, but beautiful in May.
As so many things are. Even lichens.