2008 Walk

THE BILSDALE CIRCUIT

Sunday 14 September, 2008

Our base will be the car park at Chop Gate.

The Oak House Walk (5 miles, height gain 250 metres) goes down the east side of the dale for about 2 miles to Hill End Farm. Here we turn back a short way to Oak House and then down to the Chop Gate - Helmsley road (B1257). The return is on the west side of the dale past a number of farms back to the car park. This is a nice mostly gentle stroll through delightful countryside.

The Fangdale Walk (8.5 miles, height gain 390 metres) follows the route of the Oak House Walk along the sides of the dale, but extends that walk from Hill End House further down the dale to Fangdale Beck where the B1257 is crossed. The return on the west side passes the lovely-named Stingamires on the road down from the transmitter mast to rejoin the shorter walk at Beacon Guest.

The Nearly Bransdale Walk (12 miles, height gain 600 metres) is more serious stuff. We would have liked to include the lovely Bransdale itself, but could not see a way to do so, hence it has to remain as the nearly Bransdale! We climb up on to the moors past William Beck Farm and then walk on a good gravel track towards Bransdale, passing Tripsdale on the way. We turn south and touch the road out of Bransdale before striking over the moors on a path a bit like the curate's egg - good in parts. If you have a compass, you will find it helpful. After crossing the moor, we join the route of the Fangdale Walk before crossing the B1257 and stay with that route on the west side back to base.



These maps from 1955 are reproduced from the npemap.org.uk site under the conditions of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence 2.5