A-Walking: Our Hutton-le Hole Adventure

There were eight of us on the A-Walk today: LB, PB, CH, WM, MS, MuS, PY and JY. PY was in shorts; PB led the walk.

We set off in glorious sunshine at about 10.45 am from {NZ 675 013} - a point just south of Ralph's Cross on the minor road between Castleton and Hutton-le-Hole (our ultimate destination).


From the point illustrated in the above photograph, we took a westerly bearing (following the boundary stones) across Farndale Moor to reach the old dismantled railway track. We descended from here to Esk House {SE 649 996} before making the first (and hardest) climb of the day - up onto Rudland Rigg {SE 635 986}. We then dropped down to Cow Syke {SE 625 981} at the northern end of Bransdale. We had our lunch stop at Bransdale Mill.

After lunch we had our second climb of the day - up onto the eastern edge of Bilsdale East Moor {SE 610 962} - just east of Botany Bay. Our route now took us south to Pockley Moor and Hanging Stone {SE 624 923}. Just before Rollgate Bank {SE 629 912} we swung east in order to cross Otterhills Common. After passing through Otterhills we had a short tea-stop and then continued our easterly trek across to Stonely Woods {SE 656 913}, Grays {SE 667 914} and Faddell Rigg {SE 681 909}.

We crossed the River Dove at the Mill {SE 687 909} and then headed east towards Grouse Hall and Hutton-le-Hole {SE 705 901}. As a result of the very muddy section just before the end of the walk, some of us paddled in the local stream in order to clean our boots before getting on our coach.

Click the button below to see where we went and the walk statistics.



During the walk, I made a few navigational 'slips' which caused the actual route that we took to deviate (slightly) from the planned route. Click the button below to see an analysis of the 'minor mistakes' that I made.



Thankfully, none of my blunders were 'fatal'! Indeed, we arrived at our destination about 10 minutes before 'close of play'.

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