1
From car parking layby (SE 5822 8527) return 100m along road towards Helmsley. Turn right through gate and along driveway towards National Trust site of Rievaulx Terrace for 250m. At end of NT parking and before entering NT site, turn right down permissive path to Rievaulx. Follow path downhill for 450m to reach minor road in Rievaulx village and turn left. Continue downhill along road for 300m to point with good views of Rievaulx Abbey on your left and a finger post signed to 'Bow Bridge’ on your right into a yard area. Enter yard and follow signed path into field behind and then for 600m to a pedestrian gate in hedge on your right. Through gate, turn left and follow track gently downhill and over fine stone bridge. !50m after the stone bridge turn right through a field gate with post signed ‘to Hawnby’ and follow the level grass path going very slightly right (not the faint grass path going uphill) for 900m to gate onto another track. (SE 5640 8630)
(A) In the 1750s Thomas Duncombe III beautified his estate at Helmsley by building Rievaulx Terrace with two Grecian-style temples. They are in the care of the National Trust. If your time permits the Terrace and its café are well worth a visit, including its flat walk of about a mile with extensive views(B) Rievaulx Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in Rievaulx, near Helmsley in the North York Moors National Park. It was founded in 1132 by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey as a mission for the colonisation of the north of England and Scotland. Headed by the Abbot of Rievaulx, it was one of the wealthiest abbeys in England until it was dissolved by Henry VIII of England in 1538. Its ruins are a tourist attraction, owned and maintained by English Heritage.
2
Turn right along this track briefly uphill and continue for 500m. At a T junction of tracks (with a signed footpath also continuing ahead) turn left and follow bridleway track uphill for 600m to reach Tylas Barn on your right. Continue forward along track for another 450m to point where track bends slightly left and there is a stile in hedge/wall to your front. Go over stile and turn right along hedge on your right to further stile in field corner. Continue forward with hedge/fence on your right for 500m through several fields and over several stiles to reach field corner with no stile and a finger post indication the path turns left. Turn left and follow hedge on your right through two fields for 400m to reach stile onto minor road. (SE 5517 8602)
3
Turn right along road to T junction and follow road left into Old Byland Village. Follow road gently downhill though the village green and follow it round the right hand bend. 200m after the bend and soon after passing the last farm buildings on your right, turn hard left downhill through pedestrian gate and follow path above steep valley on your left through wood for 500m. On exiting wood into field follow path, now going due south with stone wall and hedging on your left, for 700m to pedestrian gate ahead of you into wood. Enter wood and follow obvious path going diagonally to your left downhill for 400m to footbridge and exit from wood. Cross small field, going diagonally left to a stile (SE 5558 8465)
(C) The village of Old Byland is very small and built round a fine green, at one end of which are the stocks and at the other an old Norman font. None of the cottages are of any age, and the Hall on the south side is also quite modern. The Methodist chapel was built in 1872. The church, All Saints, is much as it was in the 12th century. It was probably then without a tower, and the old stones now built in at the springing of the outer arch probably belonged to the south doorway. The chancel was probably enlarged northwards in the 15th century, with the result that the east window and the altar, being central with the chancel arch, are much nearer the south wall than the north. In 1909 the church was thoroughly restored at the cost of Sir George Wombwell, when it was found necessary to rebuild the greater part of the chancel walls, while two windows were inserted in the north wall of the nave, and the west window was renewed, stone mullions replacing the wood frame which had formerly been there. The main event in the life of Old Byland in the 20th century was when almost the whole village was auctioned off - on June 7th, 1922, at the Royal Station Hotel, York. Previously it had been owned by the Wombwells, of Newburgh Priory, but debts had accrued. So it was offered for sale: 9 freehold farms, 11 smallholdings, an inn, a school and a blacksmith's shop, "altogether forming one of the most fascinating and beautiful Estates in the North Riding of Yorkshire ..."
4
Cross the track and continue straight ahead onto stepping pillars to the Cleveland Way National Trail marker posts. Follow this new track, ie Cleveland Way, for 800m to join a minor road. Turn left and follow this minor road for 1200m, ignoring the minor road going left at Ashberry Farm, to the T junction at Rievaulx Bridge. Turn right and follow minor road for 600m to, on a bend, a signed footpath/track (Cleveland Way) going right. Follow the Cleveland Way track, initially uphill, for 1300m to a fine viewpoint to your right and the access road to Griff Lodge with seat on your left. (SE 5904 8344)
5
. Circular and alternative route to return to your cars near Rievaulx Terrace uses permissive paths and not public rights of way. However it is well waymarked. Turn left along access track for 150m passing Griff Lodge on your left. Where track curves right, turn left through gate into field and follow hedge in your right for 400m to gate in hedge on your right. Turn right through gate and follow hedge on your right for 250 m to field end. Turn right and follow hedge on your right for 200m back towards the left hand side of the farm buildings. Near the farm turn left up the farm access drive and follow for 700m to a minor road. Cross road keeping straight ahead and enter field with the hedge on your right. Follow hedge on your right for 300m to the wood to your front. At end and corner of field, turn left and continue to follow hedge on your right (with road on the other side of the hedge)for 500m to gate in corner on right hand side of wood. Through gate join road and your cars are 150m to your front along road.
