Walk 1623 - printer friendly version

Burn Howe Rigg from Jugger Howes Walk

Author - Andy Chaplin

Length - 10.0 miles / 16.3 km

Ascent - 920 feet / 279 metres

Grade - moderate

Start - OS grid reference NZ944002
Lat 54.388543 + Long -0.54779669
Postcode YO22 4QH (approx. location only)

The end of this North York Moors walk involves a little bit of open walking but has the advantage that you will know the layout of the surrounding countryside by the time you come back to it and you will be walking on the top of the valley side. From the lay-by at grid ref. NZ944002 cross over the stile into the site of the old Jugger Howe military area. This now consists of an old concrete road which heads south west towards Jugger Howe Beck. The first 3 miles is actually part of the Lyke Wake Walk - see http://www.lykewake.org/index.php for those that fancy a 40 mile cross-moors walk.

Where the road ends there is a post with a red-painted band. Continue straight on, rather than going left where the main base buildings must have been situated, then before you descend down to the beck try to take note of the moors track that goes off on the left - this is where you will be coming back to at the end. As you go down to the beck the path is set out as stone steps and you will pass another couple of posts with orange and green bands before crossing the bridge and ascending up onto High Moor. The path is easy to follow as you head gently up towards Burn Howe duck pond.

After 2 miles from Jugger Howe beck, and before the duck pond, there is a moors track that leads back south east towards Brown Hill. As you look back from this junction the path you have been on is marked as a footpath and no motorbikes and the track you want is marked simply as "no motorbikes". Keep going along this track for 1.5 miles until you reach a gate that marks the end of open country.

From here the bridleway goes across the field next to the fence until it picks up the farm track that heads towards Riverhead Farm. Before the farm turn off left on the bridleway, through the next gate, then right on the track towards the farm road, then take the track down to Park Hill. Off to your right are views all the way to Scarborough Castle. At Park Hill house go right before the house then left over the stile and through the field below the house to Castlebeck Wood. There is a path that descends down to Lownorth Beck - but it is not well used. When you get to the bottom there is a better path that you take to the left, following the beck upstream. Oddly, in this rather remote wood, there are several remembrance benches - good for lunch.

Cross on the footbridge before Bloody Beck joins Jugger Howe Beck and continue north along the beck, then cross the bridge over the Helwath Beck and take any path that leads you up the bank side onto the moor on the north of, and above, Jugger Howe beck. There is a path (or is it a sheep trail?) at the start - and there is a moors track at the end - but the plan is to stay on the edge of the moor until one meets the other.

There is a new wooden bridge on a moors track that crosses a gulley to the south east of the 500 metre ditch near the top of the moor. Both the bridge and the ditch should be visible as you head north west. You should come close to the end of the ditch, but don't walk along it as it is water-logged, and contour round westwards on the moors track to meet your initial outbound route. At this point you will see the Grouse Hill caravan park in front of you and it is a short stroll back to the parking lay-by.

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