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Map: Drawn from OS Explorer OL 26 North York Moors western area.
Date walked: December 2006.
Road Route: Via Danby, take Brook Lane into Ainthorpe.
Car Parking: Roadside in Ainthorpe.
Lavatories: None.
Refreshments: Pub - The Fox and Hounds in Ainthorpe. Pub and cafe in nearby Danby.
Tourist & Public Transport Information: National Park 01845 597426.
Terrain: Moorland.
Points of interest: Little Fryup Dale only because the parallel Great Fryup Dale is bigger.
Difficulty: Moderate in good weather.
Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.
Please click the image below to go to the walking route sketch map and detailed directions, or scroll down to a Google Map of the route, the route description, and an image gallery. Plus you can bookmark this page on your favourite social bookmarking site, and comment on the walk. We hope you enjoy the walk.
Google Map
Please click on "Map" to see a cartographic map view of the route and "Hybrid" to see the combined map and Satellite. "Terrain" shows the contours of land over and around the route.
Please use the zoom tools or drag the slider to move in close or to zoom out (or use mousewheel zoom). Use the pan tools to move the map vertically and horizontally or place your mouse over the map and it changes to a hand; click your mouse to "grab" the map to manually scroll the map in any direction. Click on "Open Lightbox" to see the Google Map in its own window.
The two hikers icon shows the start of the route. Click on the hikers to get the route direction - clockwise or anticlockwise.
Please note that the outline route is a guide only and on full or near full zoom cannot be guaranteed to follow every twist and turn of the route described.
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Ainthorpe was selected as an over indulgence remedy, a short sharp blast of the North York Moors. First stop was to be coffee at the National Park Centre at Danby. It was shut for renovations till April 2007. So we crossed the Whitby to Middlesbrough railway line and the River Esk and pulled in at Ainthorpe. The name is Viking, meaning a farm on its own, these days it’s a small village. The Fox and Hounds hadn’t opened yet, the rooks and seagulls wheeled in the wind over Esk Dale.
The back road led out by a tennis court with the most spectacular setting and to a path to the moor through a shelter of gorse kissed with the occasional flower.
Heather next, up the hillside, into the bright light and into the wind. That cleared the cobwebs, which was just as well as the thin route lines did not all match the dots and dashes on the OS map. The compass gave reassurance, an easterly angle, till the edge of Little Fryup Dale. The valley, described as romantic in 1860, looked lovely, we were set for a mile long bird’s eye view. The dale has a regular shape, its bottom and lower sides boxed with dry stone walled pastures. With the sun balanced low and blinding on Round Hill in the head of the valley the wall shadows were felt pen thick and black. We pulled on shades and moved along the edge.
After that mile it was time to find a rock with a view for a sandwich stop and some spectator sport. The valley road was spaced with stationary 4x4s; there was a hunt on. The action was over the far side of the valley in a wood and on a steep slope. It was some distance and there was sight of only a few riders on the skyline and perhaps the pale movement of a hound in the trees. The wind took away the sound of horns.
Chill made us move. There's a trig point here, at a thousand foot, and great views to the Cleveland Hills. And the trig has a companion standing stone, it’s the first of a sequence of route markers. This is an interesting bit of track cum path not marked on maps as a public right of way until recently, now it’s designated as a ‘green lane’ type. I think it might be named Church Way.
Nearby lies Old Wives Stones Road, what is this Yorkshire thing about old wives? Even older are the dykes, cairns and enclosures.
After a while, just when the track was about to go steep downhill, a turn off allowed height to be maintained on a path along Ainthorpe Rigg that goes past old disused quarries and then drops off the moor via another grove of gorse. It had been a grand little walk for the short days of winter.
Walks: Descriptions 
