Postcard from Yorkshire 3; The Vale of York

So - here’s the plan; we drive to the visitor centre at the North Yorks Moors National Park with the intention of leaving the car and walking along the Cleveland Way……

The attentive reader will notice that’s how yesterday’s blip started off. Today however, the sun is shining. Sort of. There are two routes available to us; North to the Finest View in England or South to the Kilburn White Horse . This not a pub but a white horse dug into the hillside by a Victorian school master and a group of his pupils (I won’t ask how he swung that one on them) over looking the village of Kilburn.

We opt for the southern route. This my kind of walking - we’re up high with wonderful views, but without the physical effort of having got here. That was accomplished by car. To get to the visitor centre involves driving up one of the steepest main roads in Britain; a mile and a half long with a gradient of 1:4. Or 25%. It has two hairpin bends to add to the excitement.

We eventually get to the white horse - or rather one of its ears. The escarpment falls away so quickly that it impossible to see the complete animal from here - we need to be miles away. Anniemay’s blip shows a clearer idea of what it looks like.

Today's blip shows what we see standing by the horse's head - the Vale of York.

Having paid our respects to the horse, we retrace our steps, grab a coffee then set off on the northern route. This takes us to where we went yesterday, but were unable to see what all the fuss was about. The phrase “the Finest View in England” was coined by James Herriot (local vet and author) and refers to the view from Sutton Bank.

I’ve seen wonderful photographs of this very scene by Joe Cornish - I even stand in the spot where he placed his camera - but I fail to do it justice. It’s enough just to look.