Preceptory Of The Knights Templar

We field hopped over to West Burton and then started walking up a lane towards Morpeth Gate. A farmer was in the process of transferring some cows from his farmyard, across the lane and to a field. A couple escaped along the lane and he had to chase them back on his ATV. The Cabin Boy wasn't happy about all this going on, but she survived the experience. At Morpeth Gate we branched off the lane and field hopped along the contour of the hill until we reached the Preceptory Of The Knights Templar. I had to look up the meaning of 'preceptory'; it's a specific name for a monastery for the Knights Templar and Hospitallers. 

I'd known about this ruin for the last 40 years or so and I'd promised that one day I would pay it a visit; well, today was the day. Back in the day, it was a meeting place for this Christian militia. To be honest, I'm not sure why they just didn't book a room in Bolton Castle on the other side of the valley. They were a mysterious bunch though and they probably liked their privacy.  The base of the walls of the preceptory were clearly visible and there were some curious stone objects at the east end of the building. It was quite atmospheric standing on the same spot where Knights planned their Middle East adventures (although they served in most parts of Europe too). Preceptory ticked, we set off again to climb higher.

Change Of Plan

Field hopping and country lanes brought us up to the foot of Black Scar and Penhill Scar. It looked quite a formidable face from below and initially I didn't think that there would be an easy way up. As we got closer though, I could see a multitude of paths and a grassy one delivered us to the top of the east edge of Black Scar. There was a magnificent view back down into the Wensleydale valley.

Looking southwards, the top of the hill was quite flat and covered with heather. The Height Of Hazely (our first Explorer hill) was over to the southwest. We headed south on a track that serviced grouse butts in the hope that we' find a track heading westwards to the hill top. We didn't find one . I made a half-hearted attempt to get through the heather, but it was too thick. We retreated back down grouse butt track to Black Scar. I decided that we'd carry out a reconnaissance mission along Black Scar's edge to the west, to see if we could then find a track to the south. We couldn't find a southern track. I didn't fancy heather wading to the summit. I had a rethink. I suggested that we give up on the troublesome twosome of Hazely and Harland Hill, and  go back east along Black Scar's edge towards the trig on Penhill Scar. From there we could make our way down through West Witton, to the south bank of the River Ure. We could then follow the river back westwards to Aysgarth. The Kapitan and Cabin Boy nodded in agreement, although I don't think they really understood.

Towards The River Ure

Lunch was taken next to a stone structure, just above Robin Hood's well (Robin appeared to be never short of water; this was his second well that we'd come across on this latest Dale's campaign). A plaque indicated that it was a memorial to Queen Elizabeth II. It seemed to be a shelter, but was too tall and didn't have any seating inside.  Maybe it was a work in progress. There was an excellent view from its position though. There appeared to be a racehorse track in the valley below. The OS map revealed it to be the Gallops on Middleham High Moor; obviously a racehorse training establishment.

On our descent from Penhill, we waited as a grouse and her chicks made their way across the track. There must have been about a dozen chicks altogether. We reached the road and started walking towards West Witton. A couple were walking behind us and they had their small dog off the lead. It ran along the road and then came to what like a painful cropper on the cattle grid. It appeared to get up okay, but it was lucky not to break anything.

It was all downhill to West Witton and we continued through to the other side of the village. Along Flatts Lane, we met a DPD driver in a  large van trying to do a 50 point turn. He made it in the end, but we witnessed his mounting frustration.  Near to High Wanless Farm a couple of lambs had escaped on to the lane from a field. As we approached, they couldn't retreat because of a gate across the lane. One lamb got through the bushes to the field and the other one tried to get through the bars of the gate to the field. She was too big to get between the bars. All three of us cringed as she took a long run up and hurled herself at the gate. She bounced off. She tried again, but this time aimed for the space between the gate post and the hedge. All of us gave a sigh of relief. From the farm, we carried out a couple of field hops to the footpath that runs alongside the river. The view down on to the river was stunning.  We had a wonderful view of Bolton Castle on the other side of the valley. The change of plan was turning out quite well.

Return To Aysgarth

The riverside path led us westwards, back towards Aysgarth. It really was an excellent path with fine views of the river and the surrounding landscape. It meandered through fields, meadows and woodland, sometimes near the river and sometimes away. Occasionally we'd find people sunbathing on the rocks by the river. There were even a few people taking a dip. We found some stepping stones across the river at Slapestone Wath. These looked reasonably safe, at least compared to the ones we'd encountered upstream of Aysgarth Falls a few day's ago. The Kapitan even made an impromptu excursion to the middle of the river, using the stones, to take a photo. It was actually a long way back to Aysgarth, but we always seemed to be stumbling across something interesting along the path and it didn't feel that long.  Eventually it brought us back to the church in Aysgarth. The man and woman who we'd seen earlier in the morning had gone. So had the lambs.  We made our way across the road bridge to the north side of the river and headed along the trail back to the carpark.

It had been a long walk, but I'd really enjoyed it. There was a good variety of field hopping, edge views and riverside walking. It just goes to show that a re-plan of a route isn't always to its detriment. I later researched the Height Of Hazelby and Harland Hill and found that an ascent would have been better from the col between them on Hazelby's north side. I'd leave those hills for another day.