The Cleveland Way 2024: Day Five
The Cleveland Way Nordic Walk, Friday 13th September 2024
Planned route: Gribdale Gate to Skelton Green, but pushed on to Saltburn-by-the-sea
Official mileage: 12.14miles
Strava mileage: 13.65 miles
Elevation gain: 1,712 ft
Moving time: 4:35:33
Steps: 30,038
My revised route for today
Steve dropped me back at Gribdale Gate and I started walking around 10.20am. A nice climb first thing to warm the bones! I did look back from near the top and we waved at each other before he set off on his own adventure. The stone steps are uneven and you really have to concentrate where you are putting your pole tips! I reach Great Ayton Moor and the hill flattens out slightly.
As I'm walking along I spot this beautiful Fox moth caterpillar crossing over the path, later I also spotted a snake crossing the path, but wasn't quick enough with my phone to snap it! Along the path here there is a substantial wall and a small birch woodland to the left with open moorland on my right. I follow the track around following the wall, passing a York Moors boundary stone. The wall turns a corner abruptly and I go through a gate on Newton Moor to access Roseberry Topping.
Views of Roseberry Topping from the path belie its true height! to climb or not to climb, that is the question. The climb to the summit is considered part of the Cleveland Way and I decide it would annoy me in days to come if I didn't climb it! Dubbed as the 'Yorkshire Matterhorn' I hope it brings me a mountain-top experience!
I go through a gate and drop down onto a relatively steep paved path reaching a grassy flat path, before climbing up another steep stone path as it winds itself around the peak. I stop to chat to another solo female walker and she tells me I'm brave to walk alone. We have a discussion about perceived threats and she tells me she only does shorter out and back walks since she lost her husband last year, they were both keen walkers. Our chat gives my heart rate time to settle and I climb the last few turns of the path. Roseberry Topping has a programme of repair works in progress. "Roseberry Topping, a hill on the edge of the North York Moors, has seen "significant path erosion" with its 10 trails in "dire need of repair", the British Mountaineering Council said. About 100 tonnes of pathway stones will be used during the repair work which is expected to take between two and three years. The project is being run by the National Trust and North York Moors National Park." from the BBC.
Just before the top it looks like there is no-one else up there, turns out that was a false summit and when I reach the true summit, it is full of people! Norbert gets to bag another Trig point and I enjoy the 360 degree views, whilst trying not to fall over anyone. You can see the distant Pennines, Industrial Teesmouth and all across the nearby North York Moors. The American group from day one are here too. The top pic is the view back down from where I came.
Middle right pic is the false summit. I was disappointed to find so many people at the summit. A lady I spoke to said "it's the Instagram generation looking to post their mountain-top pics, they just park as close as possible and it looks like they've done a hard hike to get here" There was a woman putting her dog on the trig point for a selfie...I'll just keep quiet about Norbert for now. I have to admit though no-one up there looked particularly like they were bothered about Instagram!
I retrace my steps both back down the steep, unevenly paved stone steps and back up the other side to reach the gate I came through. Following a gravel path which cuts straight across the heather moorland I pass this memorial post to John Storey who apparently loved Hutton Moor and his family have funded the path works in his memory, much improving the conditions of the path on this stretch of the Cleveland Way
I go through a small gate and turn right to follow a track through mixed forest and along a fence, passing a gate at a junction and turn right through another gate to leave the forest. Here I re-encounter the solo lady walker from Roseberry Topping, I've caught her up, we walk together for a bit, chatting as we go, her name is Gillian. We're following a track up a moorland slope and then onto a stone-paved path, the slab in the photo is one half of a broken 1961 dedication stone from Holy Trinity School, Halifax. I wonder how that came to be part of this path?
Passing through a couple of kissing gates we continue walking together down another path, passing beech trees. Turning right and following the signpost across a track we then turn right to climb up a stone path that climbs alongside an old quarry on Highcliff Nab (top pic) we then turn along the top edge of the quarry and admire the view over the local town of Guisborough. Not long after this Gilllian announces she has come as far as she's going today and needs to turn back to Gribdale where she set off from this morning. We stand chatting for a bit and then go our separate ways. I spot this beautiful Shaggy Inkcap fungi on the side of the path.
I follow a track through the forest, stopping by a bench to eat my roll. The path through Guisborough Woods undulates and twists and turns (you could easily get lost) and I spot my first Fly Agaric fungi!!
Eventually the path reaches a gate to exit the forest and I turn left to head downhill on a concrete road through trees.
I turn right crossing a cattle grid and walk along the bottom edge of another stretch of woodland, keeping to the narrower path rather than the alum-shale wide tracks used by the local trials motorbike club. I have to keep a close eye on the path markers here!
The path leaves the serene wooded area and follows alongside the A171 for a bit crossing at the Chase Cafe Fox and Hound. Here the path heads between nearby cottages and rises on steps (almost 200 steps) up to an old quarry. Alongside the path are many gorse bushes and an abundance of broom (Cytisus).
As I'm walking I keep hearing popping sounds (akin to the sound of pinecones crackling open in the top of pine trees in the south of France on a hot August day) and it's not until something hits me in the face from a nearby broom shrub that I work out what is going on. Cytisus plants disperse their seeds ballistically from the pod with an audible pop, a ripe black seed pod had popped as I walked by. At the top of the hill, I come across Pippa and her owners eating a late lunch and we stand a chat for a bit. I leave them and continue straight uphill and then turn right to continue between a beech wood and a field.
Bottom left pic is the track that runs all the way down past Airy Hill Farm and into Skelton Green where Steve and Clara are waiting for me, I'm not stopping, just off-loading some stuff for the final part of todays journey. Originally I was going to finish here, but the weather is too nice and Sundays forecast is not that great. Steve hands me a very welcome cold can of Coke Zero. As I leave Steve behind I come across Pippa and her owners again and they suggest we could walk the next section into Saltburn-by-the-sea together. From Skelton Green we follow a tarmac path fenced through fields, down a narrow road before turning right and then left down a flight of steps into Skelton, We cross the High Street and the route takes us on a magical mystery tour of the streets of Skelton winding its way through to a new housing estate (where we lose the actual Cleveland Way despite three of us looking out for waymarkers) We pick up the path further on and end up in a quiet wooded area with the path taking us down the hill on wide steps.
Turning right we reach Skelton Beck and the path goes alongside for a bit, crossing over a footbridge and beneath the towering arches of the brick built Saltburn Viaduct.
"The Saltburn Viaduct started being built in 1865 by the North Eastern Railway Company and was completed in 1872 – in which the purpose of the railway viaduct was to help with transportation to and from Skinningrove Limestone Mine. The Grade II listed viaduct was closed to passengers in 1958 – however, it is still in operation today, as it helps to operate goods to and from the Boulby Potash mine." from saltburn.org.uk
The viaduct has 10 red brick piers and 11 arches that stretch over Skelton Beck and Mill Fields, it stands 180 metres tall!
The path runs through Saltburn Valley Gardens with some interesting bench furniture. The quote says:
"So close, no matter how far, couldn't be much more from the heart, forever trust in who we are, and nothing else matters." It's from a Metallica song ( I had to do quite a bit of research to find that one out!)
We pass the nearest to half way signpost and catch up with another couple of walkers we have bumped into a few times. They are finishing their walk in Saltburn-by-the-sea and so we say goodbye. We go up a few steps onto Albion Terrace where there are some big beautiful buildings and this wire sculpture in front of the bandstand. We follow this road down towards the sea where I say goodbye to Pippa and her owners as I won't see them again as I'm taking a day off the next day.
I continue on down the road towards the sea, finding Steve waiting in the car park round the corner. He has literally just paid for parking, so we decide to head to the seafront and treat ourselves to an ice cream! Top pic is a hurriedly taken, slightly blurry image of Saltburn Scar.
End of day ice-creams and the pier at Saltburn-by-the-sea.
