Clay Bank Top to Glaisdale

Our 11th and penultimate day, crossing the north York Moors.  It was a day of grouse and stones.  There  has been the odd grouse on other days but  they squared, quacked and chortled at almost every turn.  Not really a wonder that they were so flighty as they are bred  to be shot at.

Urra Moor – looking back to Clay Bank top

Grouse aside I had been expecting a dismal, uninteresting trudge along flat featureless moorland.

Stones on Urra Moor

So the vivid purple heather, easy walking on sand or old railway cutting with deep wide valleys were an unexpected bonus.

Ancient boundary stones litter the moors. This was the best!

Sadly the weather was not that kind.  The rain held off until mid afternoon but it was one of those ‘sticky tape’ days when the clouds hung low and the distance was obscured by a thin grey film.

Looking down to Farndale

Shame as even under these conditions, once past Urra Moor the trail passes over the heads of the river Dove,Great Fryup and Cock.

Great Fryup Dale. 19thC coal mine slag hills now re-claimed by nature stand like mini volcanos at the head of the dale

We hugged a high contour line where at various times Farndale, Rosedale and the unexpectedly attractive Great Fryup Dale spread out in green aprons between the heather clad moors.

Heather in abundance

It was an easy leap of imagination to see what it would be like under a bluer sky.