Tabular Hills Walk - Helmsley to Pickering (★★★☆☆)

Today the plan is to walk the Tabular Hill Walk - which whilst the poorer cousin of the Cleveland Way, is a walk that is hard to resist.

This is not because it crosses any particularly fancy terrain, or offers any particularly spectacular views - but just for the fact that it completes a rather neat circle for those who have walked the full Cleveland Way.

I have done half of this walk before - walking from Scarborough to Pickering - and whilst that was a fairly enjoyable walk, I do get the feeling that this western end of the Tabular Hill Walk is going to be little less exciting. And the reason for this is that of geography.

As I have set out (in a completely unnecessary level of detail) on my summary page for the North Yorkshire Moors, the northern end of the national park is formed of fairly resistant rock - resulting in poor quality moorland - whilst the southern end you have the (Corallian) limestone Tabular Hills sloping down into the clay of the Vale of Pickering (with fertile farmland).

This walk is going to be across that more fertile terrain - and as a result, instead of walking along open moors with rocky outcrops - this walk promises a more of an agricultural view - although with things getting a bit more exciting when we are on the Tabular Hills themselves.

Once down in the Vale of Pickering, we will be in an area with a long history of habitation - and of the great Mesolithic archaeological sites in the world is based upon this plain - at Star Carr, 5 miles to the south east of Scarborough (with high quality finds dating back to 9,300 BCE).

But even so, we should expect a lot of fields on this walk - and at the end of the day, we must remind ourselves that we are not here to enjoy this walk - we are merely here to complete the Cleveland Way circle.

And so it is, that I'm heading out from York on the bus to Kirkbymoorside - or at least, so it is that I should be heading out from York on the bus to Kirkbymoorside.

Instead I am still stood at a bus stop wondering if the bus is going to turn up or not - and this is where these buses run by smaller companies can get tricky - as you don't get the same level of route information that you would get with a bigger company. 

Some time has gone by since it's planned arrival, and the bus has not yet arrived, and may or may not be turning up.

But in the end - after only a thirty minute wait - it does indeed arrive, just as I had been about to give up on it ever arriving - and then after a lovely trip out through the countryside, it drops me off in Helmsley.

Helmsley is in some ways (and ways I do not like) the modern face of the North Yorkshire Moors - and I have a faint suspicion that in Helmsley they are scones as in cone-s, and not scones as in gone-s (you may have to read that back to get it right).

And whilst the moors are at their core a sometimes bleak and dreary place, where light and sunshine often go to die - it is also a place where well-to-do people live.

And if you are ever out in the moors and it feels bleak, just remember that you are at least not sharing a town with people of the following opinion (sorry people who read the Guardian, I humbly apologise for what is coming).

"Helmsley’s so sweet I can feel the cavities forming in my teeth from 10 miles away. The town is straight off a box of fudge, all honeyed stone and pansies waving from prize-winning hanging baskets. Utterly delicious, with its Norman castle, Palladian pile, secret garden and streets of rigorously renovated and scrupulously scrubbed 18th-century cottages. Just not very good for the waistline. Imagine living here: you’d need a will of iron, blinkers or a StairMaster tethered to your shins to cope with the tea shops and bakers, delis and grocers, selling sucrose in various forms: pickles, preserves, jams, chutneys, chocs, fudge, treacle, Yorkshire curd tarts, mint choc chips..." - the Guardian talking about Helmsley

Urgh... I think I might be the one that vomits. 

To be clear it is a lovely town, with some lovely people - but please don't let the Guardian writers move up here and ruin it.

But having stopped off at the bakers for a bun, it is time to head off along the Tabular Hill Walk - and initially this means walking along a series of forest tracks to the north of the town.

Here we have not got off to a particularly strong start in terms of the quality of walking - but soon we get some variety as we meet up with a road near Carlton.

Passing the village of Carlton

Rather than turning into Carlton, we turn to walk the other way - soon find ourselves turning off the road to head through some trees - before we have a steep down and up section, as we pass Hasty Bank Farm.

Through some trees

Hasty Bank Farm

Once past the farm, we are back in woods - but break out as we head across fields, before another down and up over a stream - and on past Beadlam Rigg.

From here, we have a long stretch of fields to cross - and whilst this is initially done through the fields, it is not long before we are through a very small stretch of trees - and back following a minor road.

We stay on this minor road for some time, as we head past a number of farms - before we get ready to turn off towards Hodge Beck.

Whilst still in the fields

Some of which are packed full of flowers

And now on the roads (with a view)

Whilst we are doing a decent stretch of road walking here, there is no real traffic other than the odd tractor - and the views out over this agricultural landscape are good.

And though I am at this point expecting there to be no other walkers out and about - this proves to be wrong, because over the next two miles I pass multiple groups of school kids, out for a Duke of Edinburgh style walk (heavy packs and all).

And on their way past, one of them is even kind enough to remark to their friend, "he looks like he does a lot of walks" - which is in my mind the greatest compliment that can ever be paid.

But just before we turn off this road, we do briefly move beyond the border of the national park (we have generally been walking along the border), before we soon jump back inside the park - as we head down, and cross over the Hodge Beck.

Through the trees on the far side of Hodge Beck

From here we follow some farm tracks, but are soon back on minor roads - and we stay with these minor roads until we reach the village of Gillamoor.

So far everything today has been new to me since leaving Helmsley - but at Gillamoor I am very briefly back on familiar ground - having done a walk down from Battersby to Bloworth Crossing, and then over that crossroads to Gillamoor (and back) many years ago.

That particular crossroads is also a junction for both the Coast to Coast (which heads west to east there) and the Cleveland Way (west to north) - but this particular walk crossed over north to south, taking me along Rudland Rigg.

And this Rudland Rigg used to be the old drovers road - that would be used to transport the sheep and cattle over the moors between the markets in Stokesley (northern end of Rudland Rigg) and Kirkbymoorside (to the south of Gillamoor).

That particular walk takes you over a fairly bleak expanse of endless moorland - through the heart of the moors - and across terrain that is very different to this more refined area around Gillamoor.

And so it is worth remembering that whilst we are in this agricultural countryside here, we are also perilously close to that raw unfiltered moorland experience (slightly to the north).

But having passed over that old transport route, we head to the far side of Gillamoor - and start to drop down into the very lower end of Farndale.

And once down and across the River Dove, we head back up - and start to have a bit of a hint of moorland to the country we are crossing.

Looking back on the climb up from the River Dove

Looking forwards from further up the ridge

And looking back again

Here we are passing a spot on the map marked as Pillow Mounds.

This spot sounds rather exciting - and these are the Douthwaite Pillow Mounds that were constructed by the shepherds from nearby Douthwaite Hall - to form a warren in which rabbits could be farmed for meat and fur.

These are separate to two prehistoric burial mounds (which sit further to the north and are more rounded) - and were constructed in the late 17th or early 18th century. 

These rabbits stopped being farmed in the first half of the 19th century - and I can confirm that there was not an abundance of rabbits about today (although maybe there wouldn't be even if they are being farmed).

But in any case, it is a short walk into Hutton-le-Hole - which offers up the chance to buy some extra drink - and after a walk through this pretty village, we continue to head out along farm tracks on the far side.

Hutton-le-Hole

Hutton-le-Hole is best known for being home to the Ryedale Folk Museum - which is an open-air museum where a number of houses have been transported from nearby villages and reconstructed within this museum.

Dismantling Stang End Cottage at Danby

Post-migration (and slightly more fancy) Stang End Cottage at Rydale Folk Museum

But we don't have time for such things today - and instead use the farm tracks, to take us on across the fields (in a section that isn't that exciting), before we reach Appleton-le-Moors.

Christ Church

Appleton-le-Moors used to just be called Appleton - until this was considered to be too confusing as there were many other Appletons - and in medieval times it was given the appendage of -le-Moors by the Norman French (Appleton being a derivation of Apple Orchard in Old English).

This gives it it's unusual name - although the nearby Hutton-le-Hole seems to have been a more modern Frenchification.

Here there is a very kind lady taking a young girl out on what would seem to be her very first horse ride - and with there being a bench in the town, I decide to take a bit of a rest.

But in any case, we don't spend long in Appleton-le-Moors - and are soon continuing out along quiet roads - before we drop down to cross over the Rivern Seven. 

Bridge over the River Seven

Once over, we head through some fields (this time with cows) - and then on along a track, until we meet up with a busier road that takes us up, and into Cropton.

The church at Cropton

Above the church in Cropton, there is a mound where there would have once sat a motte and baily castle - but nothing more of that remains today - and so our focus returns to our onward journey, along the roads.

By this point it has been a lot of road walking, and if walking this trail you should be expecting your feet to get sore.

Here I had considered doing the whole trip in two days, but changed my mind after I realised how much road walking there would be.

But we do eventually make it round to Cawthorne - where the Tabular Hill Walk gets ready to head north past an old Roman camp.

But this is where I plan to leave behind the trail - and start to cut across to Pickering for the night. And with this in mind, we take a footpath heading south just after the turning - which turns into a very quiet road, that runs for some distance on down to Middleton.

Heading down on the footpath

There is in fact what looks to be a fairly popular hotel along this road at Cottage Leas that looks ideal for this walk - but as it is, this road goes nowhere other than the houses sat along it, and there is very little traffic. And so this proves to be an easy route down into Pickering - and my stopping point for the night.

Total Distance: 25.2 miles (20.1 miles on the Tabular Hills Walk)

Total Ascent: 2,470 feet (2,349 feet on the Tabular Hills Walk)

Enjoyment Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ★ ★ / 5

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 100 OS Landranger map (links redirect to Amazon). The route is fairly well way-marked, but these do go missing in places