All the ingredients for a Halloween and autumn adventure on carpets of golden leaves – especially for those with vivid imaginations
Pass through a metal handgate to enter Robin Hood's Howl.
2. Emerging from the wood turn left onto a road, pass Hagg Farm and turn right onto another road for 1 km. Turn left down a road lined with trees and as it bears right turn left onto track at fingerpost signed to Holds Caldron.
3. At the fingerpost for a bridleway turn right and downwards. Pass through a wooden gate and keep ahead as the track narrows to a path. Ignore a sign for a bridleway to stay just within the trees. Where the path emerges from the wood onto a track bear left keeping the same direction.
4. Pass Hold Caldron mill and bridge on your right and just before a green barn fork left and uphill. Bear right at a fork and after an indistinct stretch of path pass through bridlegate and keep ahead. Fork left and uphill to wend your way through a plantation of saplings. At the road turn right to retrace your steps to the car park.
COMPASS POINTS
Start/finish: Kirkbymoorside, YO62 7HF, Grid ref SE 677 857.
Time/distance: 9km/4 hours.
Accessibility: Some road walking but all on quiet lanes. The last stretch of the path through saplings towards St Gregory's Minster is precipitous. Note: The ford just north of the Minster which seems to provide an alternative route to the car park is uncrossable after heavy rain and there is no longer a footbridge beside it.
Maps: OS Explorer OL26 North York Moors Western Area, Landranger 100 Malton & Pickering.
Parking: St Gregory's Minster has two car parks which you can use as long as the church is not in use. Alternatively park in the layby on the A170 (grid ref SE 677 849) and walk north to the start of the route via the footpath beside Hodge Beck.
Map link: bit.ly/Kirkdale
The wildest wildlife
Robin Hood's Howl is nothing to do with a call from a vagabond to his merry men but the name of a primarily beech wood within a narrow v-shaped wooded valley like an old railway cutting. The howl (probably a derivation of hollow) provides most of the outbound northerly route. You return down Kirk Dale and along the grassy, flat bottomed Brockhill Hagg which could almost be part of a landscaped golf course.
The cauldron is Hold Caldron, an old mill beautifully situated in a secluded spot beside an old stone bridge and weir.
Spare some time if you dare for an ascent into the narrow, deep Kirk Dale cave located within a disused quarry. Access is a little tricky especially in wet conditions, requiring a short but steep climb up a rockface. Just over 200 years ago fossilised bones of a variety of exotic animals including hippopotamuses, elephants and hyenas were discovered here.
Dating back to the Ice Age, they were analysed by a professor from Oxford University. He argued that these animals must have lived in Britain in ancient times but his view upset many within the church who believed the bones had been washed to this spot from distant lands by Noah's flood.
A final point of interest is St Gregory's Minster beside Hodge Beck. It's a somewhat grand name for a small church but an ideal spot to pause for reflection at the end of the walk with so many spiritual and mythical associations.
EAT HERE
Family run cafe in the marketplace. Serves breakfasts, sandwiches, paninis, burgers, milkshakes, toasties, jacket potatoes and sweet treats. Open daily. bit.ly/PennyBankCafe.
Characterful 17th century coaching inn with beer garden and rooms. Sunday lunches and steak and ale pies recommended. Children's menu also available. Coffee bar option too. thekingsheadkirkbymoorside.co.uk.
