The North York Moors - A Walker's Guidebook

Guidebook to 50 walks in seven regions throughout the North York Moors National Park, enabling walkers to discover the Tabular Hills, Hambleton Hills, Cleveland Hills, Northern Moors, High Moors, Eastern Moors and Cleveland Coast. The classic Lyke Wake Walk (65km) is also described, split over a four-day period.

Extracts from the Ordnance Survey Landranger series of maps, at a scale of 1:50 000, are used throughout this guidebook, with overlays showing the routes. These extracts are perfectly adequate for navigation on the walks, but if you wish to explore more of the countryside off-route, and see exactly where you are in relation to other walking routes, then you will need the appropriate Ordnance Survey maps. The Landranger maps covering the North York Moors National Park include sheets 93, 94, 99, 100 and 101. Greater detail and clarity is available using Ordnance Survey Explorer maps, at a scale of 1:25 000. The relevant Explorer maps are OL26, covering the western half of the national park, and OL27, covering the eastern half of the national park. Bear in mind that these maps are printed on both sides, so that each sheet has a North and South side. The relevant Ordnance Survey maps for each walk are quoted in the information box introducing the walk. The starting points for the walks can be pinpointed using the six-figure Ordnance Survey grid references supplied.

Use up-to-date maps, as dozens of rights of way have been officially diverted over the years, often to avoid either farmyards or cutting across fields of crops. On the high moors walkers who are good map-readers will frequently notice that the clear path or track they are following is not actually a right of way, and that the route shown on the map as a right of way is in fact quite untrodden on the ground! What to do? It seems that most walkers are happy to vote with their feet and follow the clear paths and tracks, and most landowners seem happy for them to continue doing so. The most up-to-date maps will show vast areas that are available under the so-called ‘freedom to roam’ arrangement. While the ‘freedom’ may be there most of the time, it can be curtailed when land management and other activities require it. Not all walkers would relish trekking through deep heather! For current access conditions check the relevant website – www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk.