A Stroll With Stu: try this six-mile walk between Kildale and Great Ayton

The obvious route between Kildale and Great Ayton takes in Captain Cook’s Monument, with an optional excursion to Roseberry Topping.

I last did that six years ago in wintry weather and was almost run over by a mountain biker bouncing his merry way over the rocks and heather, pedalling furiously, eyes fixed on the ground, tongue hanging out etc, etc.

(I remember though gaining some mild amusement further on when I found him trying to fish his bike out of a snow-covered peat bog after he’d accidentally gone off piste).

This six-miler takes a more Northerly track across the moors beginning and ending on quiet roads.

Kildale station is lovingly cared for by local volunteers and is pretty enough now, but should look a whole lot more handsome when the hundreds of recently planted bulbs burst into life next spring.

Slightly less cute is the crumbling little building on the other side of the tracks, slowly dissolving into the undergrowth with other bits of railway infrastructure that dates back to a more crowded timetable.

Head up the access road, past a scrumptious little man-cave on your left, into what amounts to Kildale village.

The population is under 150, significantly down on numbers in the late 19th Century when the whole area was producing an assortment of minerals to supply the industrial revolution.

Turn left at the T-junction and follow the road towards Commondale.

Half a mile later, after passing the cricket pitch on your right, take a left along a track signposted for New Row.

Cross the railway and head up to the ‘New Row’ cottages, where once lived a man who lost his life on the Titanic in 1912.

Well that’s the address attributed to him on the passenger list, but he was a rich man – travelling first class – and spent much of his time running a business in New York.

Go through a gate into the woods, bearing left and steeply uphill on a stony track, eventually emerging onto open moorland.

Half a mile later, this rutted path converges with a Tarmac road that has climbed up from the valley.

I wondered why this road even existed (the tarmac bit soon fizzles out at a gate in the middle of nowhere), and only subsequently found that there is an ancient settlement along this way.

It is steeped in history and I will have to return next summer to have a better look.

At that gate, paths radiate in all directions.

Take the one ahead that soon bears left (ie not the one that goes straight uphill) and follow it for a mile or two as it curves around to the left offering lovely

views down to the shallow valley carved by Lonsdale Beck, and further on to the prominent Cook’s monument.

I had to pause a while to allow about 30 motorbikes to growl past, redistributing muck and heather like 2-stroke muckspreaders.

The blue haze soon dissipated on the breeze and peace was restored for me to enjoy a lovely path, along which I’d never previously walked.

When Captain Cook’s monument looms more or less straight ahead of you in the distance, the path splits very obviously in two.

Take the right hand option up to a wall protecting a small wood, alongside which runs the Cleveland Way long distance path.

Go left, and drop steeply down steps to the road at Gribdale Gate, the parking spot of choice for anyone fancying a quick climb up to honour the memory of James Cook at his obelisk.

Turn right along the road, and just after the gate that leads up to Cook’s, another stile and signpost takes you into thin woodland on a path that runs parallel to the lane, and eventually downhill to the rear of a line of cottages before depositing you back out onto the road.

From here, it is a mile or more to Great Ayton (nice views to Roseberry Topping on your right), passing the railway station en-route.

If your train is still in Carlisle, head into the village where I can recommend the Tannery micropub for a warm welcome and some cracking ales (though you may need to check the opening hours).

A variety of other shops and pubs should satisfy any cravings in this appealing little village and of course you are never too far from tributes to Captain Cook who spent much of his childhood here, before heading off in 1768 to see what lay beyond the horizon.

He was hoping to find the fabled ‘Southern lands’ but I’ll bet he never quite expected what he found!