Slightly to the east of Guisborough is the former mining village of Charltons, the starting point of a walk along the Quakers Causeway and up on to Skelderskew Moor.

THE great expanse of high moorland, stretching some 20 miles from west to east and separating the Tees valley from Eskdale, is traversed by only two roads and a network of earlier trackways.

This ten-mile walk, with a five-mile alternative, follows two of these tracks and is best undertaken when the sky is high and the views of distant ridges and deep valleys are at their best.

We start from the street running through the former mining village of Charltons (GR 647158). In the 19th Century, its prosperity depended on the four iron mines in the immediate vicinity. Today, it’s the A171, the Guisborough to Whitby road, bypassing the houses at close quarters, which provides the activity and noise.

Walk along the row of houses in the Whitby direction, cross the A171 and go down Marwood Road. In 250 yards, just past the Marwood Park Heritage Centre, take a path to the right over a stile and continue past the Woodland Meadow outdoor activity centre uphill back to the main road.

You are following the former track which led to Aysdalegate Mine, where iron was mined on and off between 1863 and 1903. The houses on the left were once the winding house and workshops.

Cross the main road at the bottom of Birk Brow in two stages by using the tail-end of the central reservation.

Turn left on the far side of the road in front of Aysdale Gate Farm. In a few paces, go right over the crash barrier on to a bridleway which continues through a farm storage area up to a signpost.

Take the bridleway signed right and climb across two fields and out on to Stanghow Moor. From here, you have the pleasure of walking one of the finest of the moor crossings, with its outstanding views of the coast as well as Freeborough Hill and Lockwood Beck reservoir away on the left.

More than half of the two miles to the next road is on the well-preserved stone trod known as the Quakers’ Causeway. The name is a mystery because the route was almost certainly being used by Gisborough Priory as a link to its lands in Eskdale, long before the Quakers.

After about a mile, a well-defined path doubles back to the right. This short cut halves the walk and leads directly in a mile to Hob Cross, where the longer route is rejoined.

The main walk continues along the causeway and past the tumuli of Black Howes to the Guisborough to Castleton road.

Turn right and then almost immediately right again on a well-marked path down across the moor, where a panorama of the valley of the Commondale Beck, together with Eskdale, opens up with every step.

At the next road, you could turn right down into Commondale. I’ve also mapped a more agreeable alternative, which means crossing the road and walking down to a gate some 200 yards away.

From here, another trod, the old packhorse route between Stokesley and Whitby, keeps to the left of some white cottages and drops past two welcome seats to the village centre and the Cleveland Inn.

The striking feature of Commondale is the number of handsome red-brick buildings, including the church, the memorial institute and Coronation Cottages, with their terracotta roundels. The materials were all made at the nearby brick and tile works, which operated from 1860 to 1940.

Our walk now continues up the aptly-named Potter’s Side Lane, the road to Kildale. Just after passing the last house, take a path signed to the right. This is easy to follow and leads via a stone trod to a bridge over Whiteley Beck.

It then climbs gently along the side of Skelderskew Moor, being accompanied for some 300 yards by the pronounced ditch and bank of Park Vale, a medieval hunting preserve which once surrounded North Ings Farm, away to the left. You then join a track coming from the farm, where you turn right.

The fine monument seen ahead commemorates Bobbie Leggott and Alf Cockerill, two local Grenadier Guardsmen who served in the First World War.

In a few yards, our track bends to the left and, in another 150 yards, bends left again. At this point, turn right on a path which climbs gradually for about a quarter of a mile to Hob on the Hill, a prominent Bronze Age barrow pierced by a stone pillar.

You are kept company on the left by a Bronze Age boundary earthwork several hundred yards long and surmounted by a line of stones. There are excellent views, too.

Though the OS map has the right of way passing to the left of Hob on the Hill, it is far easier to keep to the path on the ground which swings to the right of Hob and is then marked by white-tipped posts and some elaborately carved boundary stones of 1814 and 1856.

It culminates at Hob Cross, 5ft-high on a low mound, dated 1798, and leaning at a rather rakish angle. To save it from toppling, it certainly needs some stabilising.

We pick up our shorter route here and turn left, following an easy path along the edge of the moor, where curlews and lapwings are much in evidence.

In half a mile, you enter Westworth Wood, where the path rises gently and is well signed. In 300 yards, it leaves the trees through a gate and enters a recently deforested area. Ignore the arrow pointing ahead and instead turn right to take a broad forest track through the stumps.

In 400 yards, we reach the Cleveland Way, which is followed, right, all the way back to our starting point.

It’s downhill too, with glorious views to Guisborough, the Eston Hills and the sea.

Beware of scramble bikes on the last quarter-mile through Spa Wood.

WALK FACTS

Distance: Five or ten miles

Time: Three or six hours

Grade: Moderate

Map: OS Map OL26

Conditions: Two short climbs, few stiles, well signed moor paths, but not advisable in bad weather

Refreshments: Charltons, Commondale

STARTING POINT:

Charltons, near Guisborough