A Stroll With Stu: Five-mile circular around Ruswarp, near Whitby - complete with ice cream and a pint!

This was my annual weekend away with ‘the lads’ (average age 70), which started 30 years ago with an inebriated night in the Horseshoe at Egton Bridge.

Climbing mountains and 18-mile yomps were once the order of the day, but some of us (me) find that this five-miler - a circular around Ruswarp - is more than enough these days.

We stayed overnight in the lovely Fox and Hounds at Ainthorpe and caught the morning train to Ruswarp to begin our little stroll.

According to some AI Bot on Google, Ruswarp means ‘silted land overgrown with brushwood (Artificial intelligence – copying word for word from Wiki).

Head away from the river, and just past Jackson’s butchers, take a right along a paved path towards Whitby.

Curve left and climb into woodland, bearing right at a sign marked ‘Cinder Track’.

Shortly, drop down steps to cross the track bed of the spur that linked the Scarborough line to the valley (trains reversed away to your left after an engine busting climb up from sea level).

Head up the steps opposite, then straight on for 30 yards, and right along the Cinder Track.

You’ll quickly arrive at Larpool Viaduct, where you can test your camera skills, before dropping down steps on your right at the far side.

This takes you onto the back road between Ruswarp and Whitby, still offering fine views across the fields – everything having greened up after some welcome rain.

At the bottom of the hill, leave the Tarmac on a path to the left, above Rigg Mill Beck, which you soon cross on a handy bridge in woodland.

Climb steeply up the other side, emerging onto a quiet lane, crossing straight over onto a field path, leading to a steep drop down into woods bordering Shawn Riggs Beck.

The path is obvious – alongside the beck initially – then climbing up onto one of the best preserved stretches of Monks Trods in the area.

These stone paths criss-cross North Yorkshire like a raspberry ripple and date back some 800 years, enabling monks to reach Whitby Abbey after a chippy tea.

The stones are huge and it beggars belief how they were transported and laid by hand on some really difficult terrain.

Follow the path as it levels off and makes a bee-line for the village of Sneaton, where an ice-cream may be in order at Beacon Farm if the sun is shining.

Or even if it isn’t.

Our party, had been reduced to eight earlier in the day when ex-train driver Simon, unable to navigate without rails, slewed off in the wrong direction - only reappearing in the pub some six hours later.

Apart from myself, we had a recently shaved Uncle Albert from Only Fools, Mad Mac the Caledonian cameraman, a quizmaster from Bradford, a walking encyclopaedia from Perth, Bob the printer with a broken toe, a baffled ex-schoolmate who had flown in from Massachusetts expecting more walking and less beer, and – with his party piece just half a mile away – big Stuee from Hartlepool.

Turn right and head to the road junction, turning right again then quickly left along a minor road that soon swings right and downhill.

As the road bends sharp left, look out for a stile on your right, and if you have a Big Stuee in your party, stand back and let the entertainment begin.

Stuee has form.

On one of his first walks with us, he decided that it would be a good idea to avoid a large pile of mud at a gate, by climbing onto said gate, giving it a shove, and riding it to grassy safety on the far side.

The gate hit a post on the far side, picked up pace on its return journey and unseated its rider directly into the sloppiest of slopfests accompanied by a loud “urrrrgghhhh” and a big muddy splash.

How we laughed.

On this occasion, Stuee was first to climb the stile.

It was a bit narrow (and also a bit wobbly), and Stuee lost a fight with gravity as he crashed to the turf uttering his trademark “urrrrgghhhh”.

It looked painful, so we waited a respectful 1.5 seconds before collapsing with laughter, while seismometers across the north of England recorded the event in squiggly lines.

The path leads downhill, always 30 yards above the treeline on your right.

In the third field, bear left to go through a metal gate and follow the wide track right, eventually taking you back to the road that leads back to Ruswarp.

The riverside path to Whitby begins on your right on the far side of the river, or you can just go to the excellent Bridge Inn.

Guess which we did!