604 Kirby Hill
Distance: Seven miles.
General Location: Richmondshire.
Start: Kirby Hill.
Right of Way: Public.
Dogs: Legal.
Date walked: November 2008.
Road Route: Via A66.
Car Parking: Around green in Kirby Hill, or roadside near Whashton.
Lavatories: None.
Refreshments: Inns at Kirby Hill and Whashton.
Tourist & Public Transport Information: Richmond TIC 01748 850252.
Map: Drawn from OS Explorer 304 Darlington and Richmond.
Terrain: Upland.
Points of interest: Am told a farmer's son put a mortar bomb out for the bin men.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.
Please click the image below to go to the walking route sketch map and detailed directions, or scroll down to a Google Map of the route, the route description, and an image gallery. Plus you can bookmark this page on your favourite social bookmarking site, and comment on the walk. We hope you enjoy the walk.
Googlemap
Click on "Satellite" to see our route superimposed on the satellite photograph of the land. Use the tools to zoom in or out and or the "hand" to move across the map. The icon of two hikers is at the start of the route and when clicked shows its direction. The route line is approximate. To follow our directions please use our sketch maps (link above).
Google Earth is even more dynamic but if you don't already have it you will need to download it first.
Click on "Open Lightbox" to see the Google Map in its own window.
If you can't see the walk outline on the Google Map/Satellite/Earth please refresh the screen
Kirby Hill is a place of some character, just a ring of houses set around a green on top of a hill with a pub, a farm, a church and a bench. Darlington is ten miles to the northeast, Richmond, much closer to the south.
Kirby houses are of tough old stone, the clock on St Peter and St Felix was as gilded as the autumn leaves, the pub is the Shoulder of Mutton which serves Copper Dragon ale. The bench records a victory in a tidy village competition.
Whashton, our next and last village, has numerous prize benches, apparently nine. I didn't count them, am having enough trouble with a Kirby spelt with one k and a Whashton with two h's, never mind that Kirby Hill was once called Kirkby Raven.
Whashton houses are named after ‘bootmaker, stable, smithy and granary' and the Hack and Spade inn is the only one in England and faces a one-time limestone quarry now a quoits pitch. Someone advertises Iron Age pigs.
A valley opened with shotgun fire, a buggy was hung with warm pheasants and partridge. The sun shone a bit.
There is, notably, a ford to focus on, to deal with either by jumping more than stepping across the stepping stones or, if necessary, by paddling or whatever. There's the site of a lead mill here.
Fields next, their boundaries are made by oaks and one track is Jagger Lane our route for two miles and an important one. ‘Jaggers' were the men and horses who carried the lead, in this case to Stockton.
The lane soon climbs, through conifers and then alongside a long thin wood. Here a length is an assault course with wires and pulley wheels high in the pines, to test anyone's metal.
After that it's a broadleaf windbreak as the track takes one above the pastures to 900 feet, to the rougher land of High Moor, height that's held for two miles. For an hour or so the super views to Teesdale adjust, distant turbines are prettier than chimneys.
You will notice the map shows a route with lots of straight lines. These define the MOD zone but are not new, they are on an 1857 Ordnance Survey map.
Red Flags fly, signs warn ‘Military Firing Range Keep Out', but the navigation was easy, straying is extremely unlikely and speed is easy on the maintained surfaces.
As the sun went down we did too. It had been a good winter walk, except for the ford, and I feel more danger comes by commenting on the tidiness of Kirby Hill but, to win the village another bench, someone must scale the telegraph pole by the green, its top entangled by black domestic or agricultural plastic.
Image Gallery
Please click your mouse on any of the images to open the image lightbox.
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