A Grand Day Out

From the top of Sutton Bank on a clear day you can see for ever. It certainly feels that way. It's not as well-known as the Lake District or the Yorkshire Dales perhaps, but it has wonderful views and some superb walks.

You too can see this view:

Go up the A1 (or down it, if you live a long way Up North) until you reach the turning for Thirsk on the A168. In Thirsk, turn on to the A170, signposted Helmsley and Scarborough and then just keep going, passing through the wonderfully-named Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe. It's all flat. Flat - - flat - - very flat - - flatter - - hey, bit of a slope here - - OH WOW IT'S VERTICAL!

That'll be Sutton Bank. You drive up it, marvelling at the sudden steepness, and then turn left at the top and there is the Sutton Bank Visitors' Centre and a large car park (pay and display, not expensive). There are often exhibitions of paintings or photography in the visitors' centre, and they sell books of walks in the area, including several of varying length from the visitors' centre itself. There's a good cafe too.

You can walk to the White Horse of Kilburn (just over a mile) which is astonishingly clear from a distance and very hard to identify when you're almost upon it.

But one of the best walks is along the Cleveland Way, and that's the one we did last Saturday. You walk from the visitors' centre to the edge of Sutton Bank and there's the path. At first it looks like this:

Then it opens out and looks like this:

Most people seem to cluster round the visitors' centre, and if you walk along the Cleveland Way you quickly leave them all behind - after half a mile you hardly see anyone except the occasional friendly walker.

The views are wonderful all the way - here's Lake Gormire:

and you can see all the landscape and villages spread out in the distance.

What astonishes me is that there are so few people about. It's not difficult to get to and it's one of the few places where you can see wonderful views and yet the walk itself is only very gently rolling. The Cleveland Way goes on for miles but we turned back when we got to the place in the picture below, just to make sure we come back soon to see it again.