Danby

marskeandnewmarske.com
creating an online community for residents of Marske by the Sea & New Marske





Map: Ordnance Survey OL26 Leisure Map. Some steep climbs, not for the physically infirm. I reckon it's about 10 miles. The route is picked out in red in this snippet from the map.

We start at the Eskdale Inn at the bottom of the bank coming into Castleton, It's on the right just under the Railway Bridge. >>>> Start by heading back up the hill, a steep climb for about 400m until we reach the wooden sign pointing out the bridleway to Danby.
		We follow this path past the farm buildings and houses and on into the woods at Danby Park. We carry on all the way through this small wood. A 100m after leaving the gate at the end of the wood we take the left path and head up the hill towards a dry stone walled field, we keep the wall on our left and soon reach another gate which opens onto the old drover's road.
Follow this path upwards through a couple of more gates after the second gate the path divides, it's easy to get the wrong path ours leads diagonally downhill to another gate. If you come to a gate marked Hollin Hill Farm you've taken the wrong path.
		The path climbs up to a Small farm house and our way is marked for the next section by wooden way markers painted with a blue and top. You can pick these up immediately you go through the gate onto the property, they are on the left. Follow these past the little kennel with the noisy spaniels, and out of the property and across the moor. These poles will lead you across the moor, sometimes the path is poorly defined through the heather, sometimes well paved however, eventually it opens out on to the road. We carry on northwards along the road for about 300m and on the other side we will see several marked paths, ours is the third one, with a signpost to Clitherbeck farm.
Follow the farm road, keeping the fence on the right hand side, past the farm and ignoring any other paths or stiles. Eventually the path splits and we take the diagonal path down into the valley, just skirting the corner of the dry stone wall. In valley we keep the beck on our right until we get to the ladder stile and on to the footbridge. Cross the bridge and start back out of the valley through an old gateway gap in the wall and diagonally up towards the trees.
		The path continues down through the trees and a gate at the bottom opens onto the road. Cross the road and enter the Danby Moors Centre. Good place to have a breather here.
Leave the moors centre using the gated footbridge the other side of the picnic area and follow the path across the field to the railway crossing point. Cross the tracks and follow path to the road and turn right. We follow the road for 100m or so, passing the cricket pitch on our left and Kadelands Farm on our right. At the top of the dip up from Kadelands our footpath marker is on our left. Follow this path until it splits, there is a way marker to the castle, but the path we need goes straight on then right at the end on the field to the next marker which takes us left and down to the bottom of the field where there is a ladder stile. Use this and cross the next field walking upwards towards the farm buildings. You will see the next ladder stile in the distance. Cross this and the farm road, continue straight up the steep climb until you cut back across the farm road you can follow this to the roadway or there is a path off left which will shorten your efforts by a few yards, anyway, get to the road, and turn right. Follow the road, ignoring the footpath markers until we get to the one in the image which adjacent to a small wooden fence with a red road marker on it,take this path off to your left and follow it up to the next gate where there is also a new information plaque.
		Several paths lead away from here, with the gate at our back, our is the one that leads off right and down, eventually turn left and along the valley side, more or less following the dry stone wall on our right. We follow this path about a mile until we see the gate in the wall and the path leading down to another gate and farmyard. Once through the gate we turn right and follow the farm track down to the road. Note: This path is sometimes overgrown with bracken in the height of summer but can be still traversed, just follow the line of the wall.
		At the road end you will notice we are very near to a T junction, our road is opposite and we walk down the steep road and into the valley crossing a road bridge and coming to another junction. Here our path off to the right is marked by wooden way marker The path across the first field is, at times, not well defined, but just stick to the bottom of the field with the beck on your right and you will soon see the gate at the other side of the field. We then follow the path through no less than eight gates then you will see another gated path leading off left, this will take you up and into the top of Castleton and from there you can walk down the high street and back down to our starting point at the Eskdale Inn.
		Words and images by Turners_Lad and redpete
back to top