Day 2 of C2Cx2 – Cloughton to Hackness, Monday 1 September 2014.
Statistics:
distance - 9.9 miles
moving speed – 3.1 mph
start – 11 am
finish – 4 pm
moving – 3h 12min
Today was to be another short day, so we dawdled over a very enjoyable breakfast, then had a long chat with the owner of the Wayfarer. We rang Brigantes to confirm our baggage transfer arrangements, then caught the bus just down the road from the Wayfarer for Cloughton village.
From Cloughton village we walked back down the lane to Cloughton Wyke. The wheat crop we'd walked past on Saturday afternoon had been harvested and the straw baled. As we continued our walk along the clifftop Cleveland Way, grey and black clouds loomed overhead and there were showers out to sea – but we were to stay dry all day.
We watched a farmer ploughing a field, the tractor followed by a cloud of seagulls. When he reached the clifftop, he stopped the tractor, poured a cup of tea from his thermos and gazed out over the sea. We stopped for a chat. He clearly enjoyed farming in this spectacular place, and took time out to appreciate its beauty. It was he who had harvested the field of wheat that we passed at Cloughton Wyke. As Graham had worked on grain harvesting and storage, he was interested in the English farming practices. The farmer was happy to tell him about it. This was to be the first of many encounters with friendly farmers happy to take time to talk to us as we walked across their property.
'Farmer ploughing near Cleveland Way'
'Hay bales beside Cleveland Way'
'Last view of the North Sea'
Soon afterwards we came to a sign pointing inland to 'Helmsley 48 miles', our target in 4 days time. We followed the signpost across fields and then followed a road to the village of Scalby. Scalby was expanding as an outer suburb of Scarborough but the central village maintained its character with a pub that was once a coaching house with a large access archway, a church, an avenue of large trees, and cottages with window boxes and rose gardens. We stopped for lunch on a bench on the village green behind the church.
After lunch we set off on the first real test of the NoEW as the route left the road and headed over stiles, through woods and across fields. It began well, even with the positions of some fences and gates apparently changed. However, the track shown in Maugham's book on page 163 at the 196 mile mark was blocked by a pile of garden debris and overgrown with dense, head-high nettles. After checking our position on the OS map from our GPS reference (we were in the right spot), we detoured along a farm road south west, then along a right of way north west through woods and a less dense nettle forest. The path through the woods was eroded a couple of metres below the surroundings, perhaps through prolonged use as a cart track – the remains of a charcoal kiln built at the level of the track supported this hypothesis. But it hadn't been in use for a long time judging by the overhanging branches and brambles. So our first off-road sortie on the NoEW did not augur well for the remainder of the walk.
'The North of England Way goes off-road, Scarborough Castle on horizon'
'Detour along ancient cart track'
Once we rejoined the road (and staying on the Scalby to Hackness road would have been an easier but less interesting option), it was an easy amble past walled Hackness Hall and on to Hackness Grange Hotel. We felt compelled to remove our muddy boots before entering the grand, carpeted entry to the hotel. We were relieved to find that we were booked in and that our bags had arrived. Our room was spacious with bay windows overlooking lawn, woods and hills. After a shower we went for a walk around the grounds and along the river Derwent. We saw many birds, including thrushes, tits, robins, a nuthatch and a kingfisher.
'Hackness Grange Country House hotel'
The lounge and dining room were as we had hoped for a grand country house. And dinner (scallops with chorizo, terrine, lamb cutlets with root vegetables, sticky toffee pudding, with a bottle of Argentinian malbec) was delicious. The owner of the hotel circulated between the tables. He had purchased the family house and was still in the process of turning it into the country hotel he wanted. Staying there was an indulgence on our part, but thoroughly enjoyable.
'Hackness Grange bar and lounge'