Walk up the wide track opposite the approach road. Where the track bends round to the right, go left down a signed footpath and descend to go over a bridge and bear right to continue along the green track. Go through a kissing gate and up the valley, eventually swinging away from the stream and into the forest.
On reaching a forest road turn right, passing a flooded quarry on your right. At the next junction of forest roads bear right. After about 300yds (274m), at the end of mature trees, turn up a rough track to the left.
Go up the track, leaving the forest for moorland. Continue past the base and shaft of York Cross. At a junction of tracks, near a waymarked post, turn sharp left.
Walk along the track, bearing left at the Foster Howes tumuli, and continue with the fence on your right. Pass Ann’s Cross to your right and 0.5 miles (800m) beyond you’ll reach a T-junction. Turn right through a gate and take the next track to the left past a howe and a concrete trig point at Stoney Leas.
When you reach a crossroads with a waymarked post, turn right along the track to visit Lilla Cross. Return to the crossroads, and go straight ahead. Follow the path, which goes parallel with the forest edge, for 2.5 miles (4km), eventually heading for a lone tree to the right of the wood’s end.
When you reach a post with the number 9 on it, take a faint grassy track, bending slightly towards the forest edge and still aiming for the lone tree. Near the forest, meet a track. Go almost up to the tree.
At post 6 (by the remains of John Cross), go left through a gate, to continue walking downhill on a track. After 150yds (137m), go left off the track and walk parallel with the woodland to a waymarked stile near the ruins of a building.
Go to the left of the building and ahead, parallel with the wall, to another stile. Follow the obvious footpath downhill through the bracken, go over a stile and down to the road. Turn left to return to the start.
Newton House Plantation is one of the many blocks of forestry that make up the North York Moors Forest. There are more than 50,000 acres (20,250ha) of trees in the National Park, many of them, like Newton House, open for walkers. Nearly three-quarters of the timber they produce is used for sawlogs,... and the rest for pulp and other products. Look out on the forest tracks for deer, and for siskins and crossbills that nest in the plantations. And keep an eye out, too, for mountain bikers, who are encouraged to use the trails. Unlike in most of upland Britain, the most important of the roads and tracks in the North York Moors follow the ridges between the valleys. The tracks are often marked by standing stones or crosses, many of them of great antiquity. Although some are called ‘cross’, most are just a base or the stump – and sometimes there’s nothing to see at all. The North York Moors National Park has Ralph Cross, one of the most distinctive, as its symbol. After the forest section, our walk passes what is left of York Cross and Ann’s Cross, with the remains of John Cross to guide us on the final descent from the moors. The most impressive and most ancient of the Moor’s crosses is Lilla, which commemorates a selfless deed of bravery in ad 626. King Edwin of Northumbria, whose wife Ethelburga was a Christian, was the intended victim of an assassination attempt at his court by the River Derwent near Stamford Bridge. The assassin, sent by the King of the West Saxons, lunged at Edwin with a poisoned dagger. Lilla, a Christian and one of Edwin’s counsellors, leapt forward to protect the King and was killed. Edwin had his body buried in the Bronze Age howe on the moors in sight of the sea, and had a cross, said to be the oldest Christian memorial in the North, erected in his memory. It still survives, despite a peripatetic life in the 20th century – threatened by shells from artillery ranges, it was removed to a spot beside the Whitby road by the Royal Engineers in 1952. It was returned home again 10 years later. Dominating the middle section of the walk is the improbably large sandcastle that houses the Fylingdales early warning system. It’s heavily fenced and there are forbidding notices at all approaches, but from a distance it’s impressive enough. It replaced the three ‘Golf Balls’ that became one of the sights of the Moors from the 1960s. Unlike those unexpected but satisfying spheres, the new monuments don’t seem to have been taken to visitors’ hearts yet.
North Yorkshire, with its two National Parks and two designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is England’s largest county and one of the most rural. This is prime walking country, from the heather-clad heights of the North York Moors to the limestone country that is so typical of the Yorkshire Dales – a place of contrasts and discoveries, of history and legend.
Walk up the wide track opposite the approach road. Where the track bends round to the right, go left down a signed footpath and descend to go over a bridge and bear right to continue along the green track. Go through a kissing gate and up the valley, eventually swinging away from the stream and into the forest.
1 of 8
On reaching a forest road turn right, passing a flooded quarry on your right. At the next junction of forest roads bear right. After about 300yds (274m), at the end of mature trees, turn up a rough track to the left.
2 of 8
Go up the track, leaving the forest for moorland. Continue past the base and shaft of York Cross. At a junction of tracks, near a waymarked post, turn sharp left.
3 of 8
Walk along the track, bearing left at the Foster Howes tumuli, and continue with the fence on your right. Pass Ann’s Cross to your right and 0.5 miles (800m) beyond you’ll reach a T-junction. Turn right through a gate and take the next track to the left past a howe and a concrete trig point at Stoney Leas.
4 of 8
When you reach a crossroads with a waymarked post, turn right along the track to visit Lilla Cross. Return to the crossroads, and go straight ahead. Follow the path, which goes parallel with the forest edge, for 2.5 miles (4km), eventually heading for a lone tree to the right of the wood’s end.
5 of 8
When you reach a post with the number 9 on it, take a faint grassy track, bending slightly towards the forest edge and still aiming for the lone tree. Near the forest, meet a track. Go almost up to the tree.
6 of 8
At post 6 (by the remains of John Cross), go left through a gate, to continue walking downhill on a track. After 150yds (137m), go left off the track and walk parallel with the woodland to a waymarked stile near the ruins of a building.
7 of 8
Go to the left of the building and ahead, parallel with the wall, to another stile. Follow the obvious footpath downhill through the bracken, go over a stile and down to the road. Turn left to return to the start.
Newton House Plantation is one of the many blocks of forestry that make up the North York Moors Forest. There are more than 50,000 acres (20,250ha) of trees in the National Park, many of them, like Newton House, open for walkers. Nearly three-quarters of the timber they produce is used for sawlogs,... and the rest for pulp and other products. Look out on the forest tracks for deer, and for siskins and crossbills that nest in the plantations. And keep an eye out, too, for mountain bikers, who are encouraged to use the trails. Unlike in most of upland Britain, the most important of the roads and tracks in the North York Moors follow the ridges between the valleys. The tracks are often marked by standing stones or crosses, many of them of great antiquity. Although some are called ‘cross’, most are just a base or the stump – and sometimes there’s nothing to see at all. The North York Moors National Park has Ralph Cross, one of the most distinctive, as its symbol. After the forest section, our walk passes what is left of York Cross and Ann’s Cross, with the remains of John Cross to guide us on the final descent from the moors. The most impressive and most ancient of the Moor’s crosses is Lilla, which commemorates a selfless deed of bravery in ad 626. King Edwin of Northumbria, whose wife Ethelburga was a Christian, was the intended victim of an assassination attempt at his court by the River Derwent near Stamford Bridge. The assassin, sent by the King of the West Saxons, lunged at Edwin with a poisoned dagger. Lilla, a Christian and one of Edwin’s counsellors, leapt forward to protect the King and was killed. Edwin had his body buried in the Bronze Age howe on the moors in sight of the sea, and had a cross, said to be the oldest Christian memorial in the North, erected in his memory. It still survives, despite a peripatetic life in the 20th century – threatened by shells from artillery ranges, it was removed to a spot beside the Whitby road by the Royal Engineers in 1952. It was returned home again 10 years later. Dominating the middle section of the walk is the improbably large sandcastle that houses the Fylingdales early warning system. It’s heavily fenced and there are forbidding notices at all approaches, but from a distance it’s impressive enough. It replaced the three ‘Golf Balls’ that became one of the sights of the Moors from the 1960s. Unlike those unexpected but satisfying spheres, the new monuments don’t seem to have been taken to visitors’ hearts yet.
North Yorkshire, with its two National Parks and two designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is England’s largest county and one of the most rural. This is prime walking country, from the heather-clad heights of the North York Moors to the limestone country that is so typical of the Yorkshire Dales – a place of contrasts and discoveries, of history and legend.
