Clay Bank to The Wainstones & Urra

Tumbling away at one end of Hasty Bank, one of the many summits of the Cleveland Hills, the Wainstones are a notable skyline landmark from Stokesley, and a challenge for all walkers of the Cleveland Way.

They are included in this five-mile route, (although an alternative is described too) and they then remain visible for most of the remaining part of the walk. Geologically they are pinnacles of the local hard sandstone which, through erosion mainly by ice, wind and rain, have broken away from the main hilltop. Although it can be a bit of a scramble among the rocks, it is well worth the climb.

Distance: 5 miles

Time: 3 hours

Grade: moderate

Conditions: well-signed, mostly firm underfoot

Refreshments: none

Originally published: 15 October 2004

Our route starts from the car park at Clay Bank on the B1257, the Stokesley to Helmsley road. Go to the point where the road is crossed by the Cleveland Way and turn right, or westwards, up a steep flight of stone steps constructed as a measure against another type of erosion, from the feet of the hundreds of walkers who come this way each year. At the top, the way to the VVainstones is left, over a stile and across a heather moorland for a final ascent of 300ft to the summit plateau. This, too, is paved, reputedly by flagstones from derelict textile mills (there must he many such mills for the same fine surface now covers long stretches of the Cleveland Way).

The views are outstanding, north across the Cleveland plain to Teesside. and east to Urra Moor and the dark central plateaux of the North York Moors. Westwards, the crest of Cold Moor and Cringle Moor are the next challenges if you should be heading towards Osmotherley.

The Wainstones at the end of the plateau can be squeezed through and clambered over without too much difficulty, though a little of the agility of the local sheep would help. Continue downhill and through a gap in the wall in about 300yds to reach a wooden signpost which, to the left, points to Chop Gate.

(If vou have chosen the easier route, then instead of crossing that first stile, carry straight on up the broad clay track which skirts the heights of Broughton Bank above Broughton Plantation. There are several cleared sections through the trees so that you do not miss out on the views. Roseberry Topping and Eston Nab beyond arc both prominent. In just over a mile you will have passed the Wainstones although they are invisible from below. Ignore a stile on the left and instead go through a gate, left, l00yds or so further on. The path leads in another l00yds to our signpost).

The path to Chop Gate is well marked but under-used and, after the Cleveland Way, you will feel like pioneers. The way must have been developed by jet workers for The Wainstones: popular for local climbers it crosses half a dozen bracken-clad jet shale spoil heaps in the first quarter of a mile. They were worked in the third quarter of the nineteenth century when the demand for jewellery made from this polished fossilised wood was at its peak.

At one stage it is said that up to 100 men worked in this area alone and their finds were taken in wheelbarrows down to Great Broughton to be sold to buyers from Whitby who congregated at the Jet Miners' Arms.

The quiet pastures mound Whingroves Farm followed this scene of early industrial activity. Go past the end of a green lane leading to the farm and look out for the old-style stone gate posts at the end of the next field. The path then enters a coniferous plantation used for rearing pheasants beyond which two fields have to be crossed to reach the main entrance track from Whingroves. Go right here, across a cattle grid and along the track to the fine eighteenth century buildings of Broadfield Farm.

Our route now crosses the Held to the left of the farm to a gate, and descends a wooded hollow to the B1257. Go right along this busy road for about 15yds and turn left down overgrown steps to cross Bilsdale Beck. Climb a narrow path alongside a tributary stream to Urra. In the last field before the houses, look for a stile in the fence ahead some 50yds to the right of a red gate.

Urra's neat, sturdy houses belie its derivation from the Anglo-Saxon meaning filth. From the lane that runs through the hamlet there are wonderful views back across the upper Bilsdale valley. In the final stages of the last Ice Age this was scoured out by glacial meltwater. This poured through the gaps in the Cleveland HIlls at Clay Bnka and between hasty Bank and Cold Moor, from a lake that once filled the Cleveland plain.

Turn right along the lane for 100yds to Urra House and then go left on a bridleway which climbs on to Urra Moor. In about quarter of a mile, go left at the next signpost. For over a mile the path now follows the edge of the moor and is accompanied by an impressive ditch and bank which probably date from the Bronze Age and seem to have been built for defensive reasons. in places it is up to 5ft high and would have been higher than that when it was newly-built maybe 2,500 years ago. There is also evidence of drystone walling on the west side.

Certainly those who manned it would have had no problem in spotting interlopers, for the views stretch right along the Cleveland Hills and north into the Cleveland plain. At one point the earthwork doubles back in an elbow bend to cross a deep gill after which is climbs gently up to Carr Ridge. Later occupiers made their mark too - 200yds beyond the gill look out for a 6ft-high standing stone, finely chiselled with a herring bone pattern, dated 1848 and marking the boundary between the estates of Feversham and Foulis.

Eventually our path meets the Cleveland Way as it drops down from Urra Moor. Go left through the gate and down over more handsome paving back to Clay Bank.