At the Edge of the North York Moors

Sunday. A day that promised sunshine, maybe showers. A day to get out of the house somewhere a little more distant and explore.

My friend Sandra and I picked Boltby. It’s on the edge of the North York Moors, but fertile farming country, transected by rippling streams and glades of trees. Before setting out, we found a wonky-lozenge-shaped network of paths that would take us to another village – Felixkirk – in time for lunch before returning us, wonkily – to Boltby on the other side of the lozenge.

The feature photo shows how the walk started. Honestly, it wasn’t as grey as it appears. Just moodily misty: a warning that it might – just might – rain. It didn’t.

Instead, we enjoyed noticing how the gnarled and characterful trees were at last springing into leaf: bright and sappy.

Our feet bounced along on the springy (though wet) turf, and we made good progress until we hit a series of stream-crossings. I should have taken photos of the battered little bridges, in once case so falling-apart that we forded the waters instead. We should have recorded evidence of stiles so past their use-by date that they swivelled and see-sawed as we tried to use them. We soldiered on. By now the mists were gone, the sun was out, and this was the scene.

Then Felixkirk. We sat with our sandwiches on the village green and enjoyed watching the villagers strolling towards the village hall with offerings of scones, sausage rolls and cakes of all kinds ahead of an afternoon dedicated to celebrating Saturday’s Coronation.

After lunch, the walk became more open, with long-distance views. We were on the home straits, with one more village – Thirlby – in our sights.

Then finally – back to Boltby, with a spot of bad planning: a hill at the very end, just after crossing its ancient pack-horse bridge.

But Boltby has no teashop. To Thirsk then – after four o’clock. All tea shops closed. So instead, we bought ginger beer, and sat on the market square enjoying the Coronation yarn bombing. At least King Charles had his cup of tea. And cake.

Here’s the walk we did. In our opinion (that of Sandra’s app anyway) it was just shy of 10 miles. A good day out.

For Jo’s Monday Walk.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and living in North Yorkshire, where I walk as often as I can, write, volunteer, and travel as often as I can.

60 thoughts on “At the Edge of the North York Moors”

      1. I always take bottles of ginger beer when I head out for a day. The one I like is from Bundaberg, the biggest ginger growing region in Australia. Bundagerg Ginger Beer is soooo good 😋

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  8. A lovely area for walking! It’s great to see everything looking so green now 🙂 And I do like the kingfisher (and goose?) art work on the building by the bridge in Boltby!

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  11. What a fabulous yarn King Charles III! Your sunny pictures are such a contrast to what I was expecting from the header picture. I especially liked the third from the end.

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  14. Wonderful, Margaret. I am very familiar with Thirsk as we housesat very near to there. North Yorkshire is a lovely area to walk around. With sunshine it is perfection.

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  15. Just having a peep, on my phone 😁💗. I’ve walked through Felixkirk. Such a lovely part of the world and you can always rely on Thirsk for a royal bit of yarnbombing. Thanks, Margaret 💕

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