Boltby is an attractive village lying in a valley at the foot of the Hambleton Hills. Its name is derived from Danish and means 'Bolts farm'. The domesday Book shows Boltby as the property of Hugh, son of Baldrick, but later it fell into the possession of a family who took their name from it.
From Boltby our route first traverses the beautiful Lunshaw Beck valley to Low Paradise giving us views across the vales of Mowbray and York.
High Paradise Farm |
A fairly steep climb brings us to High Paradise Farm.
From here we joined the Hambleton Drove road which offered a more leisurely pace.
The Hambleton Drove Road is an ancient track across the Hambleton Hills between Swainby and Oldstead. Its origin is uncertain but it was in use long before the Romans arrived. Bronze Age and Neolithic artefacts found along its route suggest it is one of the oldest roads in England .
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We then followed the road leading to 'Sneck Yate', (meaning the gate with the latch ), and followed the Boltby road to join the Cleveland Way to High Barn.
After lunch we continued to Boltby Scar which again offered an excellent viewpoint. Here there are the remains of an Iron Age hill fort. Nearby is a limestone fissure called a 'windypit'. This leads into 3 small rock caves which were used as homes and then burial pits by Bronze Age Beaker People. The Beaker People arrived in Britain about 2300BC. Their name comes from the distinctive beakers found with their burials. Their skeletons were found in a crouched position along with arrows, daggers and a single beaker, which possibly contained a drink for their final journey into the afterlife.
At this point we decided against following the bridleway down through the woods to Boltby because it looked very muddy. We continued along the Cleveland Way towards Sutton Bank before heading down through South Woods to Southwood Hall ( SP Thirlby Bank). This path through the woods proved just as muddy and slippery as the one we avoided, and it wasn't long before, to everyone's amusement, Syd Johnson decided to slide for several feet on his bottom resulting in very muddy trousers.
We followed FP to Greendale then back to Boltby, arriving just as the rain, that had threatened all day, began to fall heavily. Syd managed to change his trousers just before some female horse-riders passed by!
The day ended with a pleasant drink in front of a roaring fire in the Queen Catherine Hotel at Osmotherley. |