10.1 miles.
Outdoor Leisure Maps No OL26, - North York Moors Western Area
A walk starting from one of the most delightful villages
in the North York Moors, and taking in two relatively unknown dales,
- Thorodale and Gower Dale.
Extensive use is made of well defined tracks, including the Hambledon
Street on the Cleveland Way, with some use made of farm footpaths. There
a few navigational difficulties, and the walk is well signposted.
There are one or two modest gradients, but only one that is relatively
steep by most standards. However, this latter ascent, - out of Thorodale,
follows a clear track and should pose no great difficulty.
There are some superb views on this walk, and walking through Gower
Dale can be thoroughly recommended.
For a Memory Map overlay of the walk described, please select the above
link.
(Overlay made with Version 4 of Memory Map)
Park behind the village hall in Lower Hawnby (SE54215
89348). This is a small (free) parking area, though a contribution to
the Village Hall fund would be appreciated.
Head past the Hawnby Village Store, turn left, and walk uphill to the
Hawnby Hotel (care : traffic).
Turn left at the hotel and walk along the road towards Manor Farm. Opposite
the farm, take the signposted track to Hill End House Farm.
Just past this farm, there is a signposted footpath that takes you down
to the River Rye, which is crossed by a large wooden footbridge.
Continue along the footpath until you meet a track. Here turn right
to follow the footpath to Mount Pl easant Farm.
Past the farm continue Westwards along the signposted footpath, and
then track, through Thorodale.
Climb out of Thorodale by the footpath which continues in a Westerly
direction until you meet the broad grassy track of Hambleton Street
(the Cleveland Way footpath).
Here turn left and follow the Hambleton Street track for about two miles.
Where the footpath from Boltby / High Paradise Farm meets this track,
take the footpath on the left that runs along the Southern edge of Dale
Town Common.
At the South Eastern corner of Dale Town Common, where the footpath
meets a stone wall, immediately turn left and head North for a few hundred
yards.
The track into Gower Dale is on your right, where there appears to be
a meeting of several tracks.
Follow the finger posts with waymarks on them to descend through Gower
Dale. The path first crosses over a small dam at the Southern end of
a pond, and then exits woodland with Gowerdale Farm, - a derelict farm
building, ahead of you.
Takethe footpath from Gowerdale Farm back to Hawnby village.