Suprise View

A pleasant stroll to our local viewpoint, with a prehistoric cup-and-ring marked rock en route

Technical sheet

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  • Walking
    Activity: Walking
  • ↔
    Distance: 2.59 km
  • ◔
    Calculated time: 0h 50 
  • ▲
    Difficulty: Easy

  • ⚐
    Return to departure point: Yes
  • ↗
    Vertical gain: + 31 m
  • ↘
    Vertical drop: - 34 m

  • ▲
    Highest point: 270 m
  • ▼
    Lowest point: 226 m

Description de la randonnée

Start: Chevin Country Park, York Gate, Otley, Yorkshire LS21 3NU

(S/E) From Chevin Country Park Reception, walk out to the road (York Gate) and turn left. After 200 yards, a byway (Miller Lane) crosses the road, with a parking area on the left. Just beyond the byway, go through a stone squeeze stile on the right into Springfield Wood. At the exit from the wood, cross the field ahead, crossing a shallow ditch to a pair of stone uprights near a wall corner on your left. Nearby, look for the Knotties Stone, a cup-and-ring marked rock (below) just off the path to the right.

(1) Follow the main path left along the wall, passing the exit from the Surprise View car park on your left, to the remains of Jenny's Cottage and the rocks of Surprise View. Beyond the rocks, follow the sandy path right and left as it descends to meet another path that runs below the boulders. Bear left, with the stone wall still on your left, then leave the main path on a narrower path that drops diagonally down the slope to the right, above a bench. The path passes into the woods, then joins a wider path just right of a wooden sign for Great Dibb Wood.

(2) Turn right along this track, shortly passing the Vacca Wall (A) (a line of upright stones) on your left. Ignore a crossing path at the top of a flight of stone steps marked by a wooden carving, and pass a sign for White House Wood on your left.

(3) When the track divides at a Geology Trail waymark, take the right-hand fork, which leads uphill through the trees and is occasionally rocky underfoot. On leaving the trees you meet the bottom of a slabbed path coming from the right; ignore it and bear left, still climbing. The path continues through heather and gorse to an open grassy area by the pair of upright stones you passed earlier, near the Knotties Stone. From this point on, you are retracing your earlier steps. Carry straight on, crossing a shallow ditch and another path to enter the trees (Springfield Wood) once more. At the end of the wood, go through the squeeze stile in the wall and out into York Gate. Turn left along the road post the parking area on the right; the entrance to the Chevin Country Park hotel is on your right after a further 200 yards. (S/E)

Waypoints

  1. S/E : km 0 - alt. 256 m - Chevin Country Park
  2. 1 : km 0.45 - alt. 252 m - Surprise View
  3. 2 : km 1.3 - alt. 258 m - Vacca Wall
  4. 3 : km 1.84 - alt. 226 m - Geology Trail waymark
  5. S/E : km 2.59 - alt. 256 m - Chevin Country Park

Practical information

In the nearby area

(A) Vacca or vaccary walls, left (from the Latin vacca, a cow) are a speciality of the Pennines and were used in the medieval period to contain cattle, though there is some doubt whether the example on the Chevin is genuinely ancient.

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The GPS track and description are the property of the author.