Route: Around Hackness
Area: North York Moors
Date of walk: 4th January 2015
Walkers: Andrew Gilly and Fiona
Distance: 5.5 miles
Ascent: 800 feet
Weather: Perfect
We started today’s walk from Derwent View Hackness – anyone not staying at the cottage could follow this walk by parking elsewhere in the village. The route is highly recommended and the landscape is lovely throughout
We followed a path through the woods above the cottage, and then descended back into the village in order to climb up through Hilda Wood to the highest point of our walk. The tops in these parts are like table tops, quite unlike those in lakeland, and comprise of flat agricultural land, but they nevertheless make for very enjoyable walking
At the end of Thirlsey Wood we descended back towards Hackness along a narrow ravine, then climbed up again behind Hackness Hall. The views back over the Hall and the church were wonderful and the weather was so perfect that Fiona decided we were walking in Narnia – I had to show her the OS map at this point in order to prove to her that she was mistaken
After the section above Hackness Hall, we descended to the road back into Hackness and from there back to the cottage. It was good to get back, although this was one of those walks which you hope will never come to an end
For other walks here, visit my Find Walks page and enter the name in the ‘Search site’ box
Click on the icon below for the route map (subscribers to OS Maps can view detailed maps of the route, visualise it in aerial 3D, and download the GPX file. Non-subscribers will see a base map)
Scroll down – or click on any photo to enlarge it and you can then view as a slideshow
Derwent View
Willow tit or Marsh tit in the cottage garden, so alike that they were thought to be the same species until 100 years ago. I can’t say for sure which this is
No doubting the identity of this one
On with the walk, and we follow a track behind Derwent View
Coomb Hill
Descending from the woodland path to the northern end of Hackness village
We take a minor detour to visit St Peter’s Church
We pay our respects to dear Auntie Marjorie, who lived in Hackness and loved this place
After leaving the churchyard, we head up through Hilda Wood
Emerging from the wood into open countryside
Happy sister, happy wife, help me live a happy life
At a crossroads, we head down a hidden valley towards Thirlsey Bottoms
Further down this ravine, we passed a large group of 30 or so walkers - the only other people we saw on the round
We emerge into Thirlsey Bottoms
We cross the road into Hackness to take the path which runs above Hackness Hall
Hackness Hall, and St Peter’s Church which we’d visited earlier
St Peter’s Church again - an idyllic location, looking into Lowdales
Looking over the lake in the grounds of Hackness Hall towards Hackness Head on the right
Hackness Hall
I can’t resist another photo of the church and Lowdales, they look so beautiful seen from here
We head back down into the valley
Looking across to the southern end of Hackness, where we’d started our walk
We descend back down to the road
The end of a wonderful walk
