Route: Harwood Dale
Area: North York Moors
Date of walk: 27th September 2015
Walkers: Andrew and Gilly
Distance: 5.0 miles
Weather: sun and blue skies
We started our walk from The Grainary on the edge of Harwood Dale village. The Grainary is part of Keasbeck Hill Farm which is a working farm, with tea rooms, a restaurant, farm shop and more besides – well worth a visit. Having bought a couple of slices of cake we were kindly given permission to leave our car in the car park while we went on our walk
We set off down the hill through Harwood Dale village and joined a path to the left of the little church, walking through a field and past the pond at Hardwick Farm
We then climbed up the dale, across Reasty Road and walked along the edge of Broxa Forest. There were some wonderful views from this elevated position. The peace was shattered though as we approached Low North Park, which is used for trial motorcycling. The noise was rather intrusive and to get away from it we decided to revise our route and walk away from the venue rather than past it as we’d planned
Peace and quiet were soon restored as we followed a path beside Lownorth Beck, leaving it at Murk Head to walk back along the road to the start of what had been a great walk in beautiful countryside
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
A beautiful view across Harwood Dale from the Grainary at the start of the walk
Our route will take us across the valley to the edge of Broxa Forest above
The Grainary Tea Rooms
We follow the road down into Harwood Dale
St Margaret’s Church
We followed a path beside the church
Highland cattle at Hardwick Farm
We walk behind Hardwick Farm (the OS map shows a path running through the farm, but we couldn’t find it - the path via the church is just as convenient)
Crossing Keas Beck near the farm pond
Bonnie
We follow the path down to Reasty Road below
We then follow a path below the edge of Broxa Forest
Looking back to Harwood Dale
Langdale Forest and the moors in the distance
We descend back down to the valley through Lownorth Plantation
Walking beside Lownorth Beck
We cross the footbridge over the beck
Looking back across the valley (from a footpath which peters out - we retraced our steps back down to the beck)
From Murk Head we walked back along the quiet road into Harwood Dale village
St Margaret’s Church again
How now brown cow
Walking back into Harwood Dale, with Keasbeck Farm and The Grainary at the top of the hill
Back to the start - what a beautiful valley
On the way back we stopped off at Birchwatchers car park Forge Valley
Nuthatch
Great tit
Willow tit (or maybe Marsh tit - they are almost identical and were thought to be the same species until 1871)
