A Stroll With Stu: a summer's walk around Danby and Castleton area - in a heatwave

Temperatures peaked at a tarmac melting 39 degrees Celsius – over 100 in old money.

To say I wasn’t expecting quite the same on the moors above Commondale, kind of understates it.

But it was already blisteringly hot as I left the Moorsbus on Smeathorns Road – the road leading to Castleton from the A171 near Lockwood Beck.

Incidentally, you can access the Sunday Moorsbus services at Guisborough by catching the 0758 from Whitby.

I got off the bus where the road kinks left high on the moors, and took a path behind the chevron signs where several hot sheep were already squashed into a tiny bit of shade.

The distinct path drops slowly downhill towards Commondale, soon accompanied by a fence, which itself morphs into a wall among a mixture of rough grassland, heather and patches of cotton grass.

I don’t really remember cotton grass on these hills 40 years ago – maybe my memory is fading – but there is enough up there just on this stretch, to make a decent pair of chinos and a matching T-shirt.

Unimpressed by the feeble efforts at rock balancing atop the stone wall, turn your attention to the super views of the valley above Commondale as they emerge on your right.

As the wall/fence bends sharply right, carry straight on to the road and turn left.

Some cyclists huffed past me having climbed up the bank from Commondale.

One was beetroot red and smelled of burning rubber - perhaps emanating from his melting tyres or just possibly from his Spandex gusset.

I hope they found somewhere to fill their water bottles before the mercury climbed even higher.

After 300 yards, take a path on your right, which almost doubles back but soon leads into thick bracken.

Quickly though, look for a gate on your left after which the path bears right before dropping straight down under electricity wires to turn left at the wall at the bottom.

With the wall on your right, go through two gates to reach the wide track that joins Commondale to Castleton.

I spent several minutes trying to get two llamas to face the camera, but they stubbornly refused and I swear one of them deliberately hid behind a bush as I gave up and continued straight over the track through another gate.

Drop straight down through a gap in the next wall, then edge left to go through a gate at the bottom that has almost been consumed by a bush right next to the railway line.

The path heads left and it is fair to say that it is rarely used, with the long grass taking the pollen count off the scale.

Very much the plus side of that though was the wildlife.

Along this fairly short stretch I saw a sparrow hawk annoying some blackbirds, a tiny thing that I took to be a wren, several other birds that were beyond my ornithological knowledge, countless butterflies of varying hue and – for only the second time in my life – an adder which wriggled its way into the long grass before I could panic.

After less than a mile at a second little moorland beck, turn left through a gate, curving right to pass by a very new woodland plantation on your left, before climbing a very steep ladder stile and hauling your hot and protesting body up through bracken to emerge again on that track you left 20 minutes ago.

Turn right and follow it for over a mile to walk down the road towards Castleton Station.

Now at that point I intended to turn left just ahead of the tennis court, to follow the 1.5 mile route through Danby Park woods, then on through open grassland and a short uphill road section to fall into the Duke of Wellington pub at Danby.

But, I was on fire.

The smoke which normally comes from my knees after a walk, had spread to my boots and I could have baked a potato under my hat.

So, I plodded on along the road, past the station, and up the bank on the other side to arrive at the Downe Arms within seconds of the door being unlocked.

Or so I hoped.

A notice on the door said ‘Closed today - private function’, and I broke down and wept before breaking all the windows in a fit of overheated rage.

OK, obviously not.

Instead a Diet Coke from the Co-op went down in 2.4 seconds (and came straight back out of the top of my head), before I leapt aboard a passing Moorsbus that took me – after all – to the Duke at Danby!