Crossing report: Ravenscar to Osmotherley
Date: 19 July 2024
Participants: Terence Fleming and Nick Ryan
Earlier this year, five of us agreed to do the Lyke Wake Walk in July. Then Michelle had a fall and injured her shoulder, so had to drop out. Then the doctor told Dave that he should not do it. Then Dave’s brother decided that if Dave wasn’t doing it, nor would he. Nick thought he had got away with it, but sadly Terence (aged 67) told him he was still keen so Nick (56) felt morally obliged to accompany him. This was Terence’s second crossing (his first was in 1974) and Nick’s first.
As we were staying in Great Broughton, two miles away from Hasty Bank, we decided to do East to West. We know the paths from Hasty Bank to Osmotherley well, so thought that if either of us decided 30 miles was enough, the other could continue to the end alone. So, escape route planned, we left home at 3.30 in the morning on Friday 9th July.
Michelle had very kindly agreed to support our efforts, driving us to Ravenscar and meeting us at all of the check points listed in the Lyke Wake Walk guide book. This meant we did not have to lug heavy rucksacks with us – just a bottle of water, emergency clothes and food, a map, and my paper with our ETAs at each checkpoint. I calculated these by taking the times given in the guide book and multiplying by one and a half. This gave us a surprisingly accurate forecast.
We got to Ravenscar at 4.30, ignored the road closed sign on the road up to the mast, and were soon setting off. First stage from Ravenscar to Jugger Howe passed without incident and we continued the next stretch towards Eller Beck. By this stage the sun was up, and we passed through a beautiful green valley crossing a beck by a bridge. It seemed idyllic. We continued to Lilla Cross, then came in view of the Fylingdales RAF centre, with all its warning signs. We followed a nice road downward before realising that we were going in the wrong direction so had to walk through the heather to a sort of path that seemed to follow the signs that warned us about radiation.
We soon arrived at Eller Beck, where we had a bit of a rest, drank a coffee and wolfed down a few snacks. Then off we went for the next stretch. After crossing the North York Moors railway, we walked up towards Simon Howe where we nodded our respects. Then down into Wheeldale. There was no obvious path, so we climbed through the bracken, only tripping a few times. Up the hill, expecting to cross a nice well-constructed Roman Road, but we couldn’t find it. Clearly the Romans didn’t believe in cones. We couldn’t find the correct route to Wheeldale Road, actually joining it 400 metres north of where we should have.
From Wheeldale road, we turned right onto what looked like a very easy road. Sadly it turned out that the easy road was going down-hill, we were on the scrub path. This part of the crossing did drag a bit. Once we finally passed the final corner of Wheeldale plantation, it seemed we were making some progress.
Michelle was there to greet us at Hamer with sandwiches. Then off to the boggy bit. It wasn’t too bad (and we had done a recce two days previously). We did pass a pair of trainers, and wondered what had happened to the owner, but we couldn’t see any bodies struggling in the mud. After less than two hours, the bog was done, and we were an hour ahead of schedule. So we decided to nip into the Lion Inn for a celebratory pint. On leaving the Lion Inn, we had lost at least half of our one hour advantage, but felt very relaxed.
We walked along the smooth railway for what seemed like a long time (nearly a quarter of the whole crossing), and crossed down towards Hasty Bank where we were met by other members of our family who had come to meet us, which was lovely. For some reason after one look at us and listening to our conversation they declined the offer to join us on the next stretch to the Lordstones.
At this point we began to flag. Walking up Hasty bank to the path through the Broughton Bank plantation seemed particularly gruelling – knees, ankles and everything else aching. Why the hell had we signed up for this.
We soon reached Lord Stones where Michelle gave us our torches. Up the steep hill to the trig point. Then a long, long, long, long gradual decline into Scugdale. By now it was dark – no moon, no stars, so switched on the torches. We crossed the beck, almost took a wrong turn, but somehow found the path across the field into the very dark forest. With the end almost in sight, (well it would have been but for the dark) we felt a second wind.
Eventually we emerged onto the road into Osmotherley. We couldn’t see anything apart from what was in the beam of our torches. Suddenly two ladies appeared out of the dark (our wives) and accompanied us to the finish. We finished at 11.20, 10 minutes ahead of our plan.
We couldn’t have had better conditions. No wind, no rain, or winter storms, daylight for 18 hours. So probably not the most challenging crossing – but we did it! Total time (including breaks): 18 hours 50 minutes.