Route Ref:  NYM22

Back to North Yorkshire Moors Routes

There are a number of places you can start this ride from, Osmotherley, Black hambleton or the Sheepwash plus a few others. We stated at Chequers so we could get straight in for a hot drink when we finished the ride. Follow the road to the car park at Black Hambleton and pick up the track leading up Black Hambleton. The climb is not as bad as it looks and the track is firm. The last bit is the steepest and once you reach the cairn your up. Continue along the track. It's a little dull along this bit as the views are blocked out by the wall. When you reach White Gill Head turn right on to the Drove Road for a grassy ride down past the Limekiln House ruins and then to the gate in the wall at the Kepwick - Hawnby cross road.

Turn right through the gate and onto a narrow tarmac lane and a steep, fast downhill. Beware of the gate so far down! This road takes you to Kepwick/Silton road where you turn right and then right again before Nether Silton. Pass the chapel on the right just before Over Silton. In Over Silton turn right onto the forest road and follow the road into the forest. We went a little wrong here and ended up above the 'Hanging Stone'. You need to make a left junction somewhere shortly after entering the forest. The last few hundred yards before Sandpit lane were axle deep in soft claggy mud right across the width of the track. When you thankfully reach hard ground again turn left down Sandpit Lane and then right when you join the road through Thimbleby.

Continue along the road into Osmotherley, pass the pubs..and on up the bank and take the small lane left after Ruebury Lane. The narrow lane seems to go on for ever at the same gradient ... upwards. Eventually you will reach a point where the lane makes a sharp left. Go straight ahead through the gate and off road again along a muddy rutted track to join the main track at the gated wall near the booster station. Carry on along the track downhill and lookout for the short bridleway shooting off to the right to join the road. Turn right at the road to the 'Sheepwash'. Not a name you will find on the map. Why is this place called the sheep wash? Presumably because sheep get washed here..or used to! It's had that name for as long as I can remember.

Ride through the ford and then get off your bike and push up the short steep climb onto the roman road. Unless your some kind of super human..then ride up. OK some guys are fit enough and have the techie skills to do it. Follow this old road (High Lane Track) south with views down to Cod Beck Reservoir. The track is firm but puddly when wet all the way to joining the road a couple of hundred yards before Chequers.

Start Chequers 475970 - Road Bend (car park) 479959 - Track Jnc 479954 - Wall Corner 480941 - Track Jnc (White Gill Head) 490931 - Track Jnc 490919 - Road Jnc - 469912 - Road Jnc (Kirk Ings Lane) - Road Jnc Over Silton 451932 - Track Jnc (Sandpit Lane) 453946 - Track/Road 448952 - Osmotherley 456972 - Road/Track 457977 - Track Jnc 461998 - Track Jnc 470002 - Track/Road 471000 - Sheepwash 471994 - Track/Road 473972 - Chequers 475970