Crow Wood

The Danby car park is next to the entrance to Crow Wood. There is an impressive carved wooden entrance arch to the wood. A sign listed so many things that you could do in there, I thought I might not have time to do my walk if I entered. The list included: bird hide, woodland trail, wildlife ponds, den-building and a wishing tree. In reality I completed the full tour in about 5 minutes. The most interesting attraction wasn't actually featured on the list; a life size statue of a gamekeeper holding a shotgun. It looked a bit like one of those creepy street actors who paint themselves with grey paint, and then act as statues, in order to suddenly wake up and startle old people with heart conditions. I prodded it in the ribs with my walking stick just to make sure. It was definitely metal. The figure was leaning against a box that had a button and a loudspeaker. When you pressed the button, it relayed a random choice of Gamekeeper phrases such as: 'Get orf my land', 'If you let the dog off that lead, I'll shoot it' and 'A Red Kite is a Dead Kite'.

Beacon Hill

After the Crow Wood aperitif, my next target was the summit of Beacon Hill. It is possible to get to the top of Beacon Hill by following a road from Danby, but I decided to take an offroad route, at least in part. As I approached the open moors, I disturbed a Kestrel that was perched in a nearby tree. It flew at great speed, close to the ground, and disappeared behind a small mound. Almost immediately half a dozen rabbits came running from behind the mound in all directions. Halfway up Beacon Hill my map indicated I could join a track to the summit, but there was no evidence of it on the ground. This was something that I found throughout the walk; tracks clearly marked on the map, but more likely figments of the cartographer's imagination. To be fair, heather had overgrown some of them and others had probably suffered somewhat from the scorched earth policy of the Estate owners. I ended up joining the tarmac road for the rest of the way up to Beacon Hill's summit.

Believe it or not, Beacon Hill does actually have a beacon on it. It can be seen from most places on the walk and is a good navigational reference. There is a trig there too and a large car parking area. This would have been a better place to park for this walk, although you'd then obviously miss the exciting visit to Crow Wood. I was quite surprised to find a road direction sign pointing to Lealholm. The road it was pointing to was so stony, that my car suspension would probably only have lasted a few seconds if I'd attempted to drive along it. 

Tweed Trouser Brigade

The stony track was pretty hard on my feet too and, after a mile or so, I was glad to leave it and head off on to the moors. My map and the sign said that the track was a bridleway but there wasn't much evidence of use by either horse or bike. To be honest there wasn't much evidence of walkers either. I was expecting a fork in the bridleway, but none ever appeared. A regiment of the Tweed Trouser Brigade were making some noise on my left and so it was probably best I never found that fork. As I approached Thorn Hill, I disturbed a Red Kite. I was quite surprised that it had not taken flight sooner, since it was only about 30 metres away when it took to the air. Maybe the nearby shooting had spooked it and it was trying to keep a low profile. I followed a good track over Roxby Old Moor and was disappointed to find that it was setting me off on a collision course with the Tweed Trouser Brigade. I could see them walking along a track about half a mile away. A tractor was towing a trailer behind it and following the platoon and their dogs. I wondered what was in the trailer, but sometimes it's better not to think. Instead of ambushing this merry bunch, I double backed on a bridleway that took me to the east side of Scaling Reservoir. 

Scaling Reservoir

For the second time today, I entered the Scaling Reservoir car park. A gloriously sunny Saturday and the large car park was almost empty. The three cars there had only stopped to get food and drink from the mobile cafe. I guess people don't want to stop for long in a car park with a broken payment machine and a Tiananmen Square CCTV system. I sat at a picnic bench and had my lunch. The benches were made of plastic, and somebody had used portable barbeques on two of them. One end of my table was a melted mess. This might explain the excessive surveillance. If there is an afterlife, I hope the inventor of the portable barbeque is made to walk barefoot over his lit product...for eternity. I bought a cup of tea from the mobile cafe, and she charged me 10p more than was quoted on her chalk board. I did think about disputing it but thought that inflation might have increased the price since she chalked the price list up earlier this morning.

There is a permissive path around Scaling Reservoir, and I took the one on the south side. It was really quite picturesque, and I had a good view of the boats that were out sailing from the club on the west side. The path avoided a nature reserve on the shore by a diversion on to the moor. As soon as I set foot on to the moor, I saw about eight members of the Tweed Trouser Brigade stomping towards me, less than 50 metres away. I turned away from them and followed the nature reserve fence westwards. I half expected them to call after me, but all was quiet on the eastern front. At least the Tweed Trouser Brigade were behind me now. I shouldn't have any problems recrossing the moors back to Beacon Hill. Five minutes later I heard some more shooting in front of me. Damn, there was another platoon of them up on the moors. 

Danby Beacon

I picked up a path that was heading in the general direction of Beacon Hill. There had been a footpath post pointing in the correct direction when I started, but the path started sketchy, became very vague and then disappeared completely. There seemed to be a multitude of possible tracks crossing the moors. Some of them must have been made by the Estate workers and others by sheep. The one I picked up heading towards Beacon Hill eventually merged with a substantial road/track. I heard some more shooting from behind me. It seemed to have come from the area of the moor I'd just crossed! I couldn't see anybody; they must be well camouflaged. The road/track finally came to a tarmac road that would take me up to Beacon Hill's summit. As I was walking along the road, the sun glinted off a piece of metal attached to a boulder on the moor. I went over to investigate. It was a plaque with the following inscription: 'Danby Beacon. Site of RAF Station 1939-1054. The mound behind this marker housed the equipment which detected and led to the shooting down by Flt Lieut Peter Townsend of the first enemy aircraft to fall on England. 3rd February 1940'. I wondered how many people have driven or walked along this road and never noticed this plaque. It is amazing what you find in the UK, in the most unlikely places. 

Return To Crow Wood

There was nobody at the summit of Beacon Hill and I started heading down to Danby. Rather than using the meandering route I'd chosen this morning, I decided to head straight down to the village using the road. I met four men walking in the opposite direction and chatted with one of them about what birds I'd seen. Just after they left, I spotted two Kestrels having a play fight. I thought about calling him back, but the Kestrels took their aerial combat further down the valley before I could have got his attention.

The Danby car park was almost full. I considered having another trip around Crow Wood, but the queue length of 300 yards at the entrance, put me off. I'd had a great walk on a gloriously sunny day. The Red Kite was a huge bonus; I'd never been that close to one before. The Tweed Trouser Brigade had detracted from my pleasure somewhat, although at the end of the day, it didn't really affect the route I took.