Pickering to Scarborough

Saturday 4th September 2010 

After my exhaustion following the previous day's walk I was not sure what I would do on the last day of my holiday, and in the end I don’t think I made the right decision. I considered going back along the Cleveland Way to visit Rievaulx Abbey, and I wish I had as I’m sure it’s a wonderful abbey to visit. I also considered catching a bus to Pickering and spending the day on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, which I’m sure I would have really enjoyed, if I had done that. I even considered going all the way to Scarborough on the bus and spending the day in the seaside resort that had so depressed me when I arrived in the area at the beginning of the week. In the end I did the walk that I’d originally planned to do on this day, but that turned out to be over-ambitious. I was going to walk all the way into Scarborough, but first I caught a bus from the charming market town of Helmsley, where I had been staying, to the bustling town of Pickering. Instead of riding on the steam train I set off up the valley of Newton Dale and onto the upland plain, and boring farmland, of Blansby Park. After I had eventually crossed the fields I entered a delightful wood and descended steeply back down into the quiet, tranquil valley of Newton Dale. After crossing the railway line I climbed back out of the valley and crossed a road to enter Dalby Forest. Upon entering the wood I followed an endless succession of paths and forestry tracks that slowly took me across the large wood. At the other end I passed through Givendale Head Farm and joined the Tabular Hills Walk. This walk forms a link between Helmsley and Scarborough but at forty-eight miles it is far too long for a single day's walk, though as it turned out even my shortened version wasn't short enough. While having lunch between Dalby Forest and Wykeham Forest I realised that if I carried on as at this rate I wasn't going to reach Scarborough in time for the train. Therefore, near Cockmoor Hall, I abandoned my route and walked along the first road I got to all the way to the village of Snainton where I caught a bus to Scarborough. 

The weather may have been brilliant, but this was not a good walk and made this a disappointing end to a good week in the North York Moors. I enjoyed the walks earlier in the week beside the coast and across the moors, but since leaving the moors behind I found little of interest for me. I prefer walking in areas of wilderness where there is little obvious sign of human interference. Farmland depresses me just as much as a city centre while Dalby Forest was not much better. The woodland around Newton Dale was much more interesting as it’s not a wood managed purely for its timber. Ultimately I think I need to rethink my current obsession with long distance paths as I still really prefer to be at the top of a mountain instead walking along the valleys. The walk on this day was badly planned as I would never have been able to complete it in time, but the scenery along the southern edge of the North York Moors is, shall we say, not as interesting as other areas of the park. I had planned to do a circular walk around the park but ultimately that didn’t work out.