Hutton-le-Hole, Spaunton, Lastingham and Appleton-le-Moors

The walk begins in Hutton-le-Hole and follows the edge of the moorland, where upland birds include curlew, red grouse, and lapwing, along with insects such as the northern eggar moth and green hairstreak butterfly. You soon come to the tiny hamlet of Spaunton (noted in the Domesday Book as a large manor presented by King William I to St Mary's Abbey, York).

As you leave Spaunton there is a good view of Lastingham in the valley below. Chosen by St Cedd (a monk from Lindisfarne) as the site of a monastery begun in 654 AD, St Cedd caught the plague at the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD, and his brother St Chad became the first Abbot. The Venerable Bede visited in 731 AD, describing it as “among steep and solitary hills where you would rather look for a hiding place of robbers or the lairs of wild animals than the abodes of man”.

Destroyed by Danes in the 9th century and refounded in 1078 by Stephen of Whitby (before monks moved to York to found St Mary's Abbey), the magnificent crypt built by Stephen remains perfectly preserved beneath St Mary's Church as a shrine on the site of St Cedd's grave. Opposite is the Blacksmith's Arms (built in 1640 as a smithy and licensed as a pub in 1750), an unspoilt village pub with Yorkshire sash windows, low beam ceilings, and blazing log fires.

The route takes to lanes running between rectangular fields south of the moor to Appleton-le-Moors, whose wide main street is flanked by handsome houses, beautiful gardens, and the Moors Inn (formerly the Oddfellows Inn). One village house features the 'Three Bloodsuckers' carved stone faces representing the Lawyer, the Doctor, and the Clergyman, while Christ Church on the edge of the village was completed in 1865, funded by shipping fortune heiress Mrs Joseph Shepherd as a memorial to her husband.

The return to Hutton-le-Hole follows old farm tracks and lanes bordered by rosebay willowherb, stinging nettles, common twayblade orchids, and wild herbs (thyme, basil, marjoram, and sweet cicely). Hutton-le-Hole itself is one of the prettiest villages in northern England, featuring wide greens along Hutton Beck and the Ryedale Folk Museum with its fascinating collection of historic buildings rescued from surrounding villages.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.