14/04/18 - The Inn Way to the North Yorkshire Moors Summary

Distance of the Inn Way to the North Yorkshire Moors - 89 (85 Completed) Miles
Days completed in - 6
Pubs Visited - 14 out of the 31 detailed in the guide
Geocaches - 21
Timeframe - 09/04/18 to 14/04/18

This is the third Inn Way that I have completed and the one that presented the most challenges.  Don't get me wrong, I loved this in its own way and will be back next year to complete another in the series.

If you're thinking of doing one, start with the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District and then move onto this one.

It's a touch more complicated for ticking the pubs and completing the walking.

The walking is hard.  89 miles are covered in 6 days.  This is the same distance as the Inn Way to Lake District where you get 7 days.   The moors are completely bleak and if you get bad weather, its quite relentless.  I was on the moors over four days with visibility of less than 20 feet.  The views eluded me, unless you like views of peat bogs.

And the pubs have changed after 20 years.   Many are now closed.  Many don't open Monday Lunch.  Some don't open until the evening, which makes them pointless for our needs.  And finally, two classic looking ones - Blacksmith Arms in Lastingham and Feversham Arms in Church Houses are passed a long time before lunch.

Worryingly, Day 5 currently has no pubs open at all, including the one at the end of the walk.  Which was also my bed for the night!

As with all undertakings - there needs to be a roll of honour.

Best Walk - Day 3 - The first time we hit the moors and have varied walking through Cropton Forest
Best Pub - Day 3 - The Horseshoe Hotel, Egton Bridge.  A proper drinkers pubs, whereas many that were open were more dining pubs.
Best Pint - Day 6 - The Black Sheep outside the Feathers, as the sun went down.  Not much diversity on this Inn Way.  Mainly Black Sheep everywhere, with just the Cropton Micro brewery represented elsewhere.
Best Meal - Day 3 - And it wasn't a pie.  The Postgate Inn, Egton Bridge, does very good food.  Only one pub had a curry on the menu.  North Yorkshire doesn't do spice.
Advice - Parking is available for a week in Helmsley.  Plenty of spaces but you can't buy your ticket until 10am, when the castle shop opens.  Don't start on a Monday.  Most pubs closed at Monday Lunch.  Pay particular care on Day 5.  The Inn at Hawnby - the only pub in the village - is closed.  There is a B&B at a farm nearby but you will need to arrange an evening meal.  Don't forget that Helmsley has a new brewery!

Each leg of the walk has been detailed on a separate blog, available at the link;

Day 1 - Helmsley to Hutton-le-Hole
Day 2 - Hutton-le-Hole to Levisham
Day 3 - Levisham to Egton Bridge
Day 4 - Egton Bridge to Rosedale Abbey
Day 5 - Rosedale Abbey to Hawnby
Day 6 - A circular walk from Helmsely

The Photo Album on Flickr

The Photos!

14/04/18 - Day 6 - Inn Way to North Yorkshire Moors - From Helmsley

Start - Helmsley
Finish - Helmsley
Distance -  11 Miles
Key Features - Cleveland Way, Rievaulx Abbey
Geocaches - 3
Pubs - 4 attempted, 3 Successfully
Previous Stages - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5

It's not every day that you wake in one hotel, open your curtains and look directly at the hotel that you are staying in for the next night.

Looking at the Royal Oak from my room in the Feathers

Day 5 left me dazed and confused in Hawnby Bus Shelter.  My meal, bed and drinks for the night had closed down three months prior.  I had booked and paid for it four months prior.

Still, there is no problem that cannot be solved with a 4G Signal and a credit card.  Fortunately, I have both.  I get the final room in the Feathers in Helmsley and order a taxi, that surely in a charging structure unique to Yorkshire, makes me pay a call out fee.

This leaves me with an issue on what to do today.  I cannot afford two call out fees in 12 hours, so starting back at Hawnby is not an option.  Instead, I fashion a walk that takes in the three key features of day 6 walk...... The final pub on the Inn Way, Rievaulx Abbey and striding back into Helmsely like a conquering hero.

We pick up the action at Scawton, home of the Hare Pub and the last in the Guide.  But you're getting used to this blog by now.   It's no longer a pub and is open only by appointment at lunch time.

Every village needs a Michelin starred restaurant.

Ooh Look - A sign to a Pub

Doesn't really look much like a pub

That's that then

Fortunately, the walking through Nettledale is lovely.  Sun is shining, new born lambs are frolicking.  After four days in mist, this cannot help but put a smile on one's face.  And its all leading to the architectural high point of the Inn Way.

Nettledale in Spring

Looking forward to Rievaulx

And its magnificent

A lovely little coffee shop to stop for refreshments, soaking up the atmosphere.

It's the Cleveland Way that takes me back into Helmsley and the end of the walk.   I have mixed feelings about the end of these adventures.  On one hand, you know you no longer have to walk double digit miles, with your week's supplies strapped onto your back.  On the other hand, you know that every step is taking you closer to conference calls and tax returns.  It's a double edged sword.

Cleveland Way bringing me closer to reality

Helmsley castle in the distance

With me, 6 days in, getting in the way of it.

I've done it.... celebration pint at the end of the Inn Way in the Royal Oak

Another bucket list item completed and a summary blog, with traditional awards, will be posted.

I have a Saturday night in Helmsley to let you know quickly about the pub situation, all neatly arranged around a beautiful market square.

Let's knock off the two dead ones - The Crown is now a Fat Face.  You can get a drink at the Feversham Arms Hotel, but it comes in a bottle and is served by a man in a bow tie.  It's not really for the likes of us, is it.  Unless you're the type who has arranged lunch at the Scawton Hare.

To counteract the missing two, Helmsley does have a new brewery, with attached Tap House open till 9pm.  I spied it on my way out but much to my annoyance, forget to visit when I returned 6 days later.  It's a shame that in 21 pubs visited, I didn't see their produce on sale.

The Feathers - My bed for night 1 and possibly pick of the bunch.  Large, sprawling hotel with separate dining rooms and a proper little pub attached to the side.  Great juke box, lovely Black Sheep Beer.  Popular with the kids, who like to take their herbal cigarettes outside, unaware that the cloying stink follows them back in.

It smelled like Howard Marks front room.

The Feathers - where the action is.

The Black Swan - Slightly posher hotel but with a good non-residents bar, again selling Black Sheep.  Large function room at the back which had a wedding on both nights.  It was kind of fun seeing the size of the rounds increase as the night wore on, and the bride's fathers bib and tucker getting more and more disheveled.

Black Swan by Night

The Royal Oak - the most down to earth pub in the square.  Uninspiring beer voice of Bombardier and Wainwright but a beautifully presented room for night 2.   Empty at 10pm.  Forced to go back to the Feathers.  And the Black Swan.

Royal Oak, Cask Marque, yet uninspiring beer.

My over riding memory of my night in Helmsley will be sitting outside the Feathers, watching the sun go down over the market square and regaling locals with my expedition experiences.

They apologised on behalf of Yorkshire for the Inn at Hawnby.

Till Next Year and the Inn Way to the Peak District

13/04/18 - Day 5 - Inn Way to North Yorkshire Moors - From Rosedale Abbey

Start - Rosedale Abbey
Finish - Hawnby
Distance -  16 Miles
Key Features - Four Ascents, Yorkshire's Oldest House
Geocaches - 1
Pubs - 3 attempted, 0 Successfully
Previous Stages - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4



This was always going to be the day of terror;

• 16 Miles of Walking
• Climbs in and out of four valleys, giving a total ascent of 2799ft.
• Mist
• Just three pubs, the first I know I will pass before noon
• No other chance of supplies

With hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have attempted it on Friday the 13th.

I leave the wonderful White Horse Farm Inn, making my way along lanes to the tiny hamlet of Thorgill.  A chat with a local reveals ominous tidings.  He points to the ridge that we can see and says most tourists think that is the top, but really its only a third of the way.

Thorgill

Not much to look at when you get to the top - former Mine Workings

Crossing the road at Lower Blakey Moor, I feel a special shout-out should be made to the Lion Inn, a couple of miles further along.   Whenever I mentioned my expedition to locals during the week, they've all insisted that I take in this place, proclaiming it in the most revered tones.  One for future investigation, I think.

My first (unlikely) chance of refreshment is the Feversham Arms in Church Houses, the tiniest of hamlets.  Its only 11am but feeling lucky, I do try the door.  Unsurprisingly, it doesn't budge.

Too early for the pub

What follows is as bleak as the Inn Way gets.  Its a squelch when I am lucky.  When I am unlucky, I disappear up to my knees in Peat.  I work out that the white bits of peat are usually more solid than the dark bits of peat.  There are significant exceptions to this rule.

I also take my one and only tumble on the Inn Way.  I lose my footing on a peat hag and the balance affecting 70l Osprey rucksack does the rest for a slow motion, face slap down in the mud.

I see one other human - a farmer on a quad bike.  We get into a chat and he asks where I am off to.  The Sun Inn I tell him, asking if it will be open.  He insists it should be.   That's all the inspiration I need to get out of this.

Grimness

Its about 2:30pm when I drop down to the pubs door.  There appears to be two buildings that are marked the Sun Inn.  The original 1550 cottage - a pub since 1714 and the newer brick building built 200 years later.

How Pubs used to be!

I don't really need to tell you what is coming, do I?  Yes, both are locked.  I sit in their beer garden - complete with a massive sign for use by pub patrons only - and take stock of my situation.  I stole the bedside water and two ginger nut biscuits from my hotel last night, so I have enough supplies to get me over the next four miles.

I feel I need to share my pain with the members of a facebook community who have also pledged to walk 1000 miles this year.

This is the face they get to laugh at from their warm houses and offices.

Not quite the nadir of the Inn Way

Get a lot of laughs and words of encouragement.  Just think of that first cold pint when you get to the final destination they LOL.  It does pick me up to move on along the Bilsdale Valley Floor and other another climb.

Bilsdale Valley Floor - There are worse places to be with a Ginger Nut

I let the facebook group know that I am nearly done by sharing a photo of the last mile.   Its all tarmac, appears to be down hill and the AA Rosette Starred Inn at Hawnby has been booked and paid for, with a hot meal, bath, bed and beer a-waiting.

After 15 miles, I wouldn't say I had a spring in my step but I was slightly more enthusiastic than the earlier photo.

Hawnby Below for Chez Mappiman

The pub does look in darkness when I arrive.   There isn't a light on but I think to myself that maybe they start at 17:30 and haven't opened up.

The Inn at Hawnby - not quite as welcoming as it should be.

I have a look through the windows.   It bereft of furniture and fixtures and fittings.   Maybe they are just redecorating, I think to myself.

Spartan

Its only when I try the spider web encrusted doorbell and start typing "Inn at Hawnby" into Google on my phone and get the auto complete "Inn at Hawnby Closed?"  I realise I am in trouble.

The owners have done a flit!  With my £79. And my hot meal, bath, bed and beer.

I retire to the bus shelter opposite to consider my options.

12/04/18 - Day 4 - Inn Way to North Yorkshire Moors - From Egton Bridge

Start - Egton Bridge
Finish - Rosedale Abbey
Distance -  15 Miles
Key Features - Early Pint, The Moors, First Views
Geocaches - 1
Pubs - 5 attempted, 3 Successfully, 1 shut, 1 closed.
Previous Stages - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3


There's probably a German phrase for the uncomfortable silence felt when you breakfast at a B&B.    If I knew it I'd use it, for this morning it's just me and the dirty weekend couple from last night's drinkathon, making small talk over the expired orange juice.

I'm off and out as soon as I can.

Today is a question of re-routing from the official path.  Its not raining, but the mist and mud are  beyond grim.  At the end of the day, I haven't cheated on miles, even if I have tried to stick to terra firma.

Early walking is fine, heading along the River Esk and through Arnecliffe Woods to Glaisdale. I arrive at the Arncliffe Arms (no spelling mistake, it's lost it's "e") at 10 am. Pub is still open, as I pass a rambler who stayed there last night

Into the Woods

Arncliffe Arms - Having work done but still functional

Watermill down on the Esk

Lealholm is reached at 10:50am.  Pretty little village where the Board Arms front door is open, even at this early hour.  Knowing I have 9 miles of moorland to the next stop, I use all my powers of persuasion to successfully receive fortification.

The landlady is most accommodating, serving me a Black Sheep and warning me that I need to stock up in the village, as there is nowhere else for supplies until I reach my destination.

Board Inn, Leaholm

Yorkshire Head

It's a climb out of the village and into the mist.  Last item of entertainment is the geocache at an ancient cross road marker.

Geocache at the Crossroads

And then its all like this....

What did you do on your holidays?

I am meant to have fine views over Great Fryup (oh the irony, I'm on my fourth consecutive Full English Breakfast) but its relentlessly grim.  I follow Glaisdale Rigg and Cut Road Path successfully but overshoot the turning to George Gap and have to retrace my steps.   When I hit the lane, I decide I've had enough of the North Yorkshire Moors and take advantage of tarmac to get the easiest route to Rosedale Abbey.

Don't you dare tell me you wouldn't have done the same.

I pick up the official path in Rosedale, walking through a deserted caravan park as though I was a cowboy walking through an Apache burial ground. I can't see them, but I know they are watching.

Safety is arrived at, after a puff up the hill to the White Horse Farm Inn - a fine place to spend a night.  The mist lifts and I am rewarded, for the first time in days, with some super views.

Home for the night - Hose pipe to the right used for cleaning

Rosedale - Fine views once the mists have lifted...

... Getting Finer

Once clean, I head down to the village to check out the two pubs.

The Millburn Arms is temporarily closed down and having a refit but the Coach House Inn is fully functional.

Coach House Inn

This is one of the better pub's on the Inn Way.  It's got some unusual CAMRA approved ales on. I start with an unrefined Rising Tide from the Turning Point Brewery.  This means no finings were used in production and is deliberately cloudy.  No problem with that but is was a touch floral for my tastes.  I soon moved on to a Whitby Brewery Porter.

But the real success here was the food.  After 3 nights of excellent evening meals, there's been nothing on any menu in the slightest bit spicy. The Coach House Inn changes this and has a reasonable Jalfrezi.

If I come back to North Yorkshire, it will be in the Summer and I am bringing with me a collection of chilis.  I'll lure them in with the mild green ones, get them hooked and clean up like Pablo Escobar on the scotch bonnets.

11/04/18 - Day 3 - Inn Way to North Yorkshire Moors - From Levisham

Start - Levisham
Finish - Egton Bridge
Distance -  15 Miles
Key Features - The Moors, A Forest, Heartbeat, Best Meal of the Way, Best Pub of the Way
Geocaches - 10
Pubs - 6 Available, 4 Successfully visited, 1 passed by, 1 closed
Previous Stages - Day 1, Day 2


Day 3 of the Inn Way and for my money, the best day of them all.  We have the Moors for the first (and second) time.  We have varied walking through forests.  We have the best pub and the best meal.  We have the worst pub.   We have Nick Berry.

All of life is here!  I just need the weather.  You just need to strap yourself in for a lengthy blog.

At least its not raining

So a day that promises the most beautiful views and I am denied by mist.  We can all look at what I could have won at another blog.

Levisham starts high and in no time, I am out on the first moors of the trip.   Levisham Moor is a gentle introduction with good paths, providing easy navigation to a couple of items of interest.

Skelton Tower - Location of a rare Virtual Cache

The Waterfall at Hudson's Cross

To break up the bleakness, the route drops down to the railway and climbs to the breath taking view point of Needle Point.   No point me sharing photos of cloud, so here's what its like to walk through a forest.

Cropton Forest

Its a fair distance through the trees on good forest rides until I reach Wardle Green.  It's amazing how the landscape changes.  In an instant, I'm out into what I would call proper, featureless moorland.  There's nothing but heather and those mental birds that scare the life out of you by taking flight on your approach and then gliding back to the ground going "clak, clak, clak, clak".   They are my only friends.   There's no other life up here.  I have no idea who left the footprints I am following or when.

A Rare Directional Sign in the heather

Simon Howe and the Pile of Stones

After a good couple of miles of this, it then becomes a completely surreal experience to enter a Theme Park Village.  It's when I reach the 1950's police car that I realise that Goathland is the setting for Heartbeat's fictional Aidensfield.

Our route guide sums it up best when he says

"Places you have never visited before feel familiar with an uneasy feeling of deja vu at almost every corner" 

That, and looking completely at odds with the first humans that you have seen all day who are milling around aimlessly and pretending to enjoy themselves.

But what about the Pubs Mappiman?

There are three and get this, I actually walk on past the first one.  The Spout House Bar looks a bit posh for someone carrying everything they currently need for a week and looking as I do.

Too Posh

I mistakenly think the Inn on the Moor is an Inn.  Its more of a posh coffee lounge but to be fair, after the rushed of her feet solo barperson has made 7 cappuccinos for the blue rinse brigade paying separately (in coppers, may I add), she does pour me the best Black Sheep of the entire journey.  A delightful pint in sterile conditions.

When is an Inn not an Inn?

And on to the Goathland Hotel, where the proprietor has changed the name to the Aidensfield Arms, to lure in the Nick Berry fanclub.

And talk about being careful what you wish for.  The place is mental busy with runaround kids, the indecisive elderly and the quite frankly insane and he is having to work like a trojan.   I order my Black Sheep and he gives me the 1000 yard stare.  I ask him if there is a problem.  After a sigh and a pause he says "You haven't said if you want a pint or a half" in the most cheerless, morose Yorkshire accent imaginable.

His beer is terrible too.... vinegary rubbish that I was too scared to complain about.   And if you think I am being harsh, just check out the TripAdvisor reviews.

1st Inn Way Sticker!

Nick Berry's Local - I was out of there in a heartbeat quickly

I tweet my disappointment and the route designer instantly replies that fear not, for the best pub is just around the corner.

How he found it 20 years ago, I don't know.  I found it by fighting my way through the crowds recently disgorged from the Steam train and following my GPS for around a mile to Beck Hole.

And there, just past the teenager on a bridge desperately trying to get a signal from someone's WiFi, is the lonely and exceptional looking Birch Hall Inn.

Birch Hall Inn - Fully Licenced with a Sweet Shop next door

Sensing my approach, I hear the door bolt scratch.  They've read my tweet and want to restore my faith in good Yorkshire Beer and joyful service!

Well actually, he's on his way out to Goathland and the pub doesn't open till 7:30pm.  This, despite being a Good Beer Guide 2018 entry that states 11-11 opening hours.

There's not much chance of any future InnWayers getting a tick here, as we have a good 4 miles of agricultural walking to our home for the night at Egton Bridge.

I'm mud splattered and tired, which leads to a navigational error putting me on the wrong side of the River Esk to where I am staying at the Horseshoe Hotel, another GBG 2018 Entry.  Not to worry, there are stepping stones that can avoid a lengthy (everything seems lengthy after 15 miles) retrace of steps and never have I made a finer entrance to a pub.

My room?  Top Left.  I'm in the bathroom trying to get peat off goretex.

Lovely host, perfect En Suite Double Bed room but if I get too settled, I'll never get out to explore the Postgate Inn.

Breaking with tradition and being a good pub next to a railway station

The Postgate is a foody pub, with an exceptional menu written on slates and hung above the fire place.  The beer (a single Cameron's Strong Arm) was not much to write home about but in a week of fine evening meals, my chicken wrapped in bacon on a gnocchi bed was the best.

So I eat up and head back to the Horseshoe.  At last, a proper pub with a fishing memorabilia laden bar full of drinkers and a well behaved Patterdale Terrier.  There's good banter between us all and its obvious that whilst I have been eating, they've all been drinking.  Hard.

Eventually the following are left;

The great barman host - the kind that pours spirits with no need of a measure.
The Patterdale Terriers Owner, who is as drunk as a lord
A couple on a dirty midweek break.
Yours Truly.

Lots of laughs and raucous conversations until our couple decide to have one more artisan G&T before talking too loudly about what they are going to do to each other when they get to their room.

Patterdale Terrier Man fusses his dog.  Barman cleans some glasses.  I pretend to read my newspaper for a 2nd time today, attempting to do the easiest and last remaining sudoku.

They sense they need to be a bit more discreet and their conversation drops to a series of flirtatious giggles and the clinking of goldfish bowl sized gin chalices.

This continues until the man erupts in a temper and shouts "Oh Love, I cannot believe you forgot to pack the lingerie."