Day 13 Osmotherley to Great Broughton
Sunday 2 June 2024, 9 miles
Osmotherley was our gateway to the North York Moors walking up a steep bank to the top of Beacon Hill before turning eastwards to join the Cleveland Way through Clain Wood. There were some beautiful tracks through here and it felt quite different to earlier parts of the walk.
From there you continue traversing round before climbing again up to the top of the bank and looking over North Yorkshire. You stay relatively high here on the escarpment, about 300 metres/1000 feet and work your way along to the top following a really well-laid path; up and down but not too much of either as you work your way in an easterly direction. We were here on a Sunday and it was a busy place with walkers, mountain bikers and hang gliders all enjoying the sunny weather. We stopped for a while to watch them cruising the thermals and marvelling at how it all seems to hang together, quite literally!
The walking today was a delight. Straightforward navigation as you just follow the path along the escarpment; the sun was shining and we had fantastic views. It wasn’t a particularly long day either, so we had plenty of time to stop for breaks. This was one of my favourite days on the trail.
You continue to follow along the ridgeline then there are a few a sharp descents and re-ascents as you work your way along the ridge. We stopped to watch some climbers on the Wainstones before we scrambled through that tumble of rocks then walked along to Clay Bank Top where our hotel for the night, the Wainstones, had arranged to collect us and drive us to the hotel, just a few minutes up the road in Great Broughton. They then were to drive us back to the same spot to continue our journey the following morning. If you don’t stop here, then there aren’t many options and you’d probably need to walk a much longer route.
The Wainstones Hotel was nice although at first a bit of a worry as they were refurbishing their kitchens but we need not have been concerned as the food was good and filling just as we wanted. They served a couple of decent pints to wash it down as well.
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