North York Moors Walks
Hawnby Hill & Easterside Hill
Date: 20th December 2008
Distance: 4.7 miles
Ascent: 1115 feet
Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
With: On my own
Start Grid Ref: SE539917
Walk Summary:
A short circuit visiting Hawnby Hill and Easterside Hill, two shapely hills in an attractive area of Ryedale.
Route Summary: Moor Gate - Ladhill Gill - Easterside Hill - Easterside Lane - Hawnby - Hawnby Hill - Moor Gate
Pictures:
1. Hawnby Hill from Moor Gate
2. Looking across Ladhill Gill to Easterside Hill
3. Ladhill Gill
4. Roppa Edge
5. The top of Easterside Hill
6. Hawnby Hill from Easterside Hill
7. The top of Hawnby Hill
8. The narrow northern end of Hawnby Hill
9. Arden Great Moor and upper Ryedale
10. Looking across Moor Gate to West Bilsdale Moor
Walk Detail: It had been nearly a month since my last walk and with no prospect of a decent day of weather I decided to go for a jaunt in the North York Moors. It had been a while since I'd driven that way and it made a nice change to the A59 or the A66. Fortunately the roads were hardly busy because the last few miles to Moor Gate and through Hawnby were on a very narrow road.
The walk was simple, apart from missing the redirected path above Sportsman's Hall. This path had been directed to a new bridge built when the old one, further downstream, was destroyed in the floods that hit upper Ryedale a few years ago.
Although of low altitude the two hills I climbed are two of the shapelier in the National Park. In fact it is a shame that Hawnby Hill does not even reach the 1000ft mark as it is a real little gem with some crags and in places quite narrow in width. There is not much else to report about the walk, it took me just over two hours and was really quite pleasant despite the gloomy weather. It would have been nice to see the scenery in sunnier conditions but then again had the weather been great I would perhaps have regretted not doing something higher.
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