The Hole of Horcum, Levisham and Newtondale.

17/03/2018.

It happens every year, you begin to think that spring is just around the corner, then "smack" winter has one last sting in her tail. Well today we felt the whiplash as the tail was wagging like crazy. Not known a day quite like it. Rosy cheeks would be guaranteed today....The route for todays walk was taken from the latest [ spring] edition of Country walking magazine, only instead of starting from Levisham we chose to start from the Saltergate car park to make the 7.5 mile walk a little bit longer. A great start to the day, as the pay and display machine wasn't working, the whole thing was frozen solid. I tried to pay [honest I did] but it kept spitting my money back at me...Saving me the princely sum of £2.50...A good start.

We crossed the road to be instantly greeted with the impressive sight of the Hole of Horcum. The ground drops away before us in a most spectacular fashion, its one of the grandest sights in the whole of the North York moors national park. Local legend has it that it was formed by Wade the giant, who while arguing with his wife, picked up a huge handful of earth and threw it at her, resulting in this giant crater. The earth landed a short distance away to form what is now the hill called Blakey topping..He must have had massive hands.!!..That's just nonsense. In reality the hole was created by a process called Spring sapping, where water welling up from the hillsides gradually undermines the slopes above, eating away at the rock,over thousands of years to produce the fantastic landscape we see today. There was a dusting of snow on the slopes today making the whole scene look that little bit more beautiful. We picked up the path that dropped down into the hole. The problem here was the ice as we slipped slithered and slid downhill.

We made it eventually down into the valley where we passed the old farm building of Low Horcum. There were once two farms in the hole, Low and High Horcum, only Low Horcum remains, but it hasn't been occupied since 1966. When I say "it hasn't been occupied" that's a bit of a fib as it has been kitted out to be a home for the local wildlife. In fact the whole farm has been turned into a giant nestbox. With lots of entrances for our feathered friends.Popular with Bats, Owls and Swallows so I am reliably informed. What a great use for an old abandoned farmhouse.

We continued along the valley following the Levisham beck to Levisham village. Its probably a couple of miles to the village but a couple of miles that seemed to take an age due to the mud. The path in places turned into a quagmire..it was a case of head down and get on with it. Levisham is a nice little settlement with a nice pub [The Horseshoe], its well known for its good food. If you are ever in the area you should pop in for a meal, or maybe just for a pint....All quiet in the village this morning. No one about except for the local postie [wearing shorts]. I had a laugh with him saying that I had thought about wearing shorts todays but I had decided to leave them for a week or two. He laughed ,but probably though "what a prat".

We left the village following a lane to reach the moors, Lonely moors, windy moors, bloody windy moors. The snow showers came every 15 minutes or so, battering us, only to be basking in sun a few minutes later. The sun was so welcome as the wind was so cold, chuffin cold. We were now heading along a moorland track bound for Skelton tower.

The romantic ruins of Skelton tower are perched on a hilltop overlooking Newtondale. This 2 storey tower was built as a shooting lodge in around 1830 by a former rector of Levisham. Some say he came up here to write his sermons but it is also rumoured that he escaped up here to enjoy a quiet drink...Even vicars need a drink from time to time. I had planned to have a drink here, Coffee and maybe a butty, but the wind was so strong and cold that the idea never really took off. The only thing that took off was my hat, I had to run to catch it. On a nice day the views from up here would have been the highlight of the walk, looking down into Newtondale where the North Yorkshire Moors railway winds its way along the valley floor. I made the mistake of removing my gloves to take a photograph of the view, what a mistake, I could have cried, the pain was that bad. I shall return in fine weather to admire the views.

Looking at the map,all seemed easy now as we had to follow a decent path back to the start. But this wasn't to be as the wind and snow slowed us down to a crawl.

Before long we rounded a corner and there before us was the road and the Saltergate hairpin bends. The sun came out...It had been a grand 4 hours.