Blakey Ridge and Rosedale Circuit Walk

The Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge, North Yorkshire is one of my favourite places no matter what the weather, it’s always got a great atmosphere and serves great food all day, It also has a decent selection of cask ales to sup after a walk.

It’s also a great place for walking with loads of linear and circular routes near by, not to mention it being a stop off on the coast to coast walk.

This particular route is one of the walks we do quite a lot, it’s a nice length for a quick afternoon walk at just over 11.6 miles and there’s a little bit of ascent and descent plus a couple of pubs and tea rooms in Rosedale if you fancy a stop. The scenery is also pretty stunning no matter what the weather and we’ve done it in just about every type of weather.

If you park up at The Lion at Blakey then cross over the road and turn right for a few yards to reach a sign post that points diagonally down to the old railway line. Then basically follow this as it runs along the top of the valley, past the Blakey Junction sign following the path as it bends off to the left, passing some cool old kilns on the right.

Now you can either Walk down Chimney bank, taking care on the road, or cross the road and use the footpath that double’s back at the bottom, if you go down the bank you will go past the newly re-opened white hose farm inn (although you could always stop for a quick pint if you aren’t driving)

Follow the road past the pub and cross over the bridge, there’s another pub on the right if you want another drink. Turn left along the road and follow it into the centre of Rosedale, here you will find 2 Tea Rooms, both of which are worth a visit if you have time.

Follow the road out of the village keeping the green on your left, past public loos, and the car park followed the old church hall that’s been converted into flats, follow the road as it bends round to the right and climbs up a little bit of a hill, passing bell end farm (it’s really called that). When you come to a Y junction follow the road to the left, signposted the orange tree. Follow the road past the orange tree, you will soon reach a farm, you can now either follow the path through the farm or continue along the road. Either way you will end up at the bottom of swyne stye hill. Take the footpath through the large gate that goes up through a farm with lots of ducks and chickens.

Go through a gate at the top and passed the disused farm buildings, follow the path round past another set of archways and follow the path round past a third set.

As you approach Sturdy bank, ignore the path down to dale head farm and continue along the top path, it can get a bit wet under foot for the next bit but it’s easy enough to follow the path which soon starts to bend left.

Pass by the old wall with a window in before coming to the sign for the Lion Inn, follow the path up to the road and you’re done.

You can download the GPX file here, it’s in zip format so you just need to extract it you can also view my other pics here.

PS today we shared a plate of chicken goujons which are great but not a patch on the mozerella melts the Lion used to do. Then I had a delicious game pie with home made chips and em had the potato topped veggie bake which was also great! The Thwaites Wainwright was also on top form.