GRUMPY SISTERS' INK

The Moors The sky was overcast, the forecast threatening, but undaunted we packed the thermals and headed off into the hills. We parked up at the Lion Inn, and in leaving the warmth if the car, knew immediately that we needed another layer of clothes, and hats for those of us that had brought them. The wind was biting cold. The inn is on top of the moorland, sitting there all on its own. The inn was snowbound for 9 days one winter with people stuck in side. Not a bad place to be stuck for that amount of time! As we dropped down the hillside we found we were out of the wind. W followed the tack of the olds Rosedale Railway. From 1861 to 1926 this railway carried iron ore from mines in Rosedale over the high moorland to the north-west and down to join the main rail network at Battersby Junction. Steam engines pulled up to 15 loaded wagons around the dale heads, but the hill itself with a maximum gradient of 1 in 5 was negotiated by incline tramway. The route of the former railway from Bank Foot, up the Incline and over the High Moors to Blakey Ridge is now a public bridleway for walkers, horse-riders and cyclists. To add to the adventure, the path marked on the Map going up to the top of the ridge was not there, so we footed it across country, this being low lying scrub, soggy grass and bracken. Hard in the legs, but we made it up to the road, where shortly we joined a marked moorland path. After a while we realised the white stone markers were boundary stones and not necessarily marking the path. The path took us down into the valley where we sat on a stone wall for some refreshments and to plan our next move. It was certainly out of the wind down in the valley, but our map led us up again. Once more the path failed us and we set off up the paddock, biddin good day to sheep and horse, squelching through the muddy bits and finally making it up to the side road, which presented us with a UP hill climb. In the end we opted to walk along the road as our off the Map adventures were adding up, and we felt safer up high where we could see where we were going. We could see the Inn, but like the abbey in Italy, it did not seem to be getting closer. It was of course, and soon we were taking off our outer layers and waking into the warmth and cosy ambience of the pub. If you have a chance to go to Rosedale Abbey you will find a lovey little village. If you go into the tea shop and ask where the abbey is they will roll their eyes and sigh deeply. There is no abbey now, it is the name of the village and the abbey stones were used to build the houses that line the streets. We did a bit of industrial archeology fossicking, as John was interested to find more about the Rosedale Railway. In the process we encountered VERY steep roads with windy bits that put the car though it's paces. Just as well we weren't walking up them, it would have done us in for sure! Quite tough today, especially as the wind was buffeting us, so we left we had earned our rest.