Walk 500 Commondale
Distance: Five miles.
General Location: North York Moors.
Start: Parking area just west of Commondale village.
Right of Way: Public and Right to Roam. Check for Open Access Restrictions on www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk.
Map: Drawn from OS OL26 North York Moors western area.
Date walked: October 2006.
Road Route: From York via Stokesley or Blakey.
Car Parking: Grass/gravel area with info-board, free.
Lavatories: Commondale.
Refreshments: Pub - The Cleveland Inn and a tearoom in Commondale.
Tourist & Public Transport Information: North York Moors National Park at Danby 01439 772737
Terrain: Moor and valley.
Points of interest: On the Modern Antiquarian website the Park Pale dyke is imagined variously as a territorial boundary, a defence system or a deer park boundary - http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/5506/bridestones.html.
Difficulty: Good underfoot.
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 a plugin for your browser 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
Commondale, the village, huddles down in a dip in the North York Moors. Really today I should be celebrating my five-hundreth walk for The Press with the highest peak in the Dales but that will have to wait until my Achilles tendon is strong enough. Nevermind, a nice walk this.
People ask me if I’ve ever repeated a route, no, but bits of them yes, and so with this one for the first mile or two. And they ask if I’m going to run out of routes, no, the more you do the more you imagine, plus there's the Right to Roam, and this is one of those. So when we got to where we reached in 2004, and were set on a shooters’ track, out came the binoculars to scan Commondale Moor for a return line.
We tracked on, over North Ings Moor, cut through a long line of standing stones and to our pleasure got a sea view. And to our irritation came across the first of a number of signs and painted rocks that should by rights be gone, as they read/imply you shouldn’t be here, as in pre-right to roam.
A valley opened up as we took a ridge, another valley, a new view, it’s not the shock of the new after a decade of doing this, it’s another notch, a honing of the pleasure.
By now we’d reached a place between Wayworth and North Ings moors and to avoid any road work looked for the way down we’d previously guessed at. It was good, a mown strip through the heather and grasses, an access route for grouse shooters, passing a line of luxury butts and cutting across the fascinating Park Pale dyke. The only grouse was that acrid smoke from heather burning had settled in the valley, blurring the clarity of the blue moon-hung sky.
Time now for thanks to the people who have been important to me in this job the last decade. First and foremost to Victoria, my navigator, who has kept me on track, and second to Julian Cole of the York daily, The Press, who hasn’t tried to keep me on the straight and narrow. As my minder at the paper all these years he could have blunted my barbs and smoothed all my choppy syntax, but he hasn’t and that has given me confidence. And thanks to you, reader/walkers for not writing in to complain at any and every mistake, thereby forcing me to write stories heavy with self-protective qualification. And remember if you don’t get lost now and then you haven’t lived, but take that compass, which reminds, don’t want my gold one yet. Hope you’ve enjoyed the walks, I have, lots.
Image Gallery
Please click your mouse on any of the images to open the image lightbox.
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