Saturday 11th January 2014
Another astonishingly bright, sunny day &, for most of it, we seemed to be walking straight into the sun until the end, of course, when we contrived to be stumbling back to the van in the dark again!
Parked in Raincliffe woods, only 3-4 miles from our camp-site, & set out to walk a geocaching circular around the Derwent valley & the hills west of Scalby & Scarborough. Just as yesterday, this was to be a first.... I'd always wanted to follow the raised banks of the Sea Cut but had always ended up being seduced by sand, sea & fish & chips!
Climbing the northern side of the Sea Cut towards Hawthorn Wood
Across the valley are the steep slopes of Rowbrow Wood &, above, the flat expanse of Irton Moor, home of GCHQ Scarborough & goodness knows what kind of secret goings-on!
Raincliffe Woods, where we parked, is the left of the two escarpments on the horizon - the western edge of Irton Moor
There's that blessed sun again!
The right-hand escarpment is Scarwell Wood &, between them runs Forge Valley... all the way to the pub we'd visited on Thursday!
Our route took us across the high farmland above Suffield with brilliant views across Scarborough to the castle
Spotted an old disused quarry, followed a track & found this wonderful ruined lime kiln nestled in at the edge of the woods!
'The Nags Head Inn', Scalby
'New' Pub No.2!
Such a lovely day we sat outside in the sunshine - not bad for January!
At the beginning of the last century this was a Wine & Spirit Merchants run by Tom Laughton, a relative of Charles Laughton, Hollywood superstar of the 1930s, who also came from Scarborough!
Discovered today that William Mompesson was appointed Vicar of Scalby in 1662, leaving within a year to take up a similar post in Eyam, Derbyshire.... the 'Plague Clergyman' might never have been part of the story!
Scalby Nabs from the Sea Cut... we'd been up on top of there not so very long ago
Interesting to note that if the man-made Sea Cut hadn't been dug we, probably, wouldn't have been able to walk here today: after all the wet weather it would almost certainly have been under water!
The channel was opened in 1804 to help prevent the quite regular flooding of farmland in the Derwent Valley & appears to be still doing an efficient job - I guess Scalby & Scarborough, too, would be quite vulnerable without it
Another cracking day & though Les had brought a torch she didn't really need it - just as well... the batteries weren't working!
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