8.6 miles (full walk, see below, 10 miles)

Explorer Map OL27, - North York Moors (East)

The first section of the walk follows the Cleveland Way footpath from Staithes to Port Mulgrave, but then continues along the road to Hinderwell.
After visiting St. Hilda's Well in the St. Hilda's Churchyard, the route continues using field footpaths to the hamlet of Newton Mulgrave.
At this point, the intention had been to take the Newton Bank track South, to make a loop past America House Farm. However, the track appeared to be totally overgrown and inaccessible, so we cut our losses by taking the minor road to Low Borrowby.
From there we followed field footpaths to Dalehouse, then followed minor roads back to Cowbar and Staithes.

Possibly the biggest difficulty of this walk lay with the footpath between Low Borrowby and Dalehouse. This footpath had been trampled by cattle, so that it somewhat resembled a battlefield.

For a Memory Map overlay of the walk described, please select the above link.
(Overlay made with Version 5 of Memory Map)

Some new mapping software is now available which you may want to try, - QUO mapping. You can download the software for free from the link below, complete with demonstration maps. Having installed QUO, you can import and export Memory Map overlays. Thus YOU DON'T NEED Memory Map to use any of the overlays provided on the Grey Panthers web site, - just use QUO!!

Park in the car park at the top of the bank in Staithes. (Fee payable between 1 March - 31 October). (NX78159 18566).
Take the cliff top footpath from the car park down into Staithes village.
From the "Cod and Lobster" pub, follow the Cleveland Way footpath along the cliff top to Port Mulgrave.
Continue along the minor road to Hinderwell, and St. Hilda's Church.
Head East along Hinderwell's main street, and about 50 yards from there the road forks (and the War Memorial is situated) there is a lane / track on your right that goes past the village school.
After crossing a couple of stiles, you enter a lane. Here turn left and after a couple of hundred yards there is a gap in the hedge which open onto a field footpath that leads to Newton Mulgrave.
Before Newton Mulgrave itself, you cross the Dales Beck in a wooded valley. This involves descending / ascending some fairly steep and (in wet weather) slippery stones.
Once out of this wooded valley, head across the field to where there is a public footpath sign. Cross a couple of stiles to reach a minor road.
On the map, the route continues along a track (the Newton Bank track) but we found this to be virtually impassable. So we cut our losses by taking the minor road to Low Borrowby.
Opposite the farm house in Low Borrowby, there is a public footpath which can be followed all the way to Dalehouse.
Our experience was that cattle had converted this footpath (in places) to a battlefield. Because of this, there might be some benefit in simply following the minor road, instead, from Low Borrowby to Dalehouse.
In dalehouse, we crossed the beck by the road bridge, then turned right to follow the minor road to where it crosses a ford.
At this point, take the track on the right to the main A174 road. Just past Red House Farm take the minor road / track back to Cowbar and Staithes.