I set out from the village hall in the improbably pretty Hutton-le-Hole and headed north up the main street past St Chad’s church, past the old school house, now a café, then right onto the road towards Lastingham and left onto a path soon after the car park. From here I trudged north to the trig point on Shooting House Hill. The map shows the path ending about 300m short of this and that is exactly what happens on the ground. I don’t know if the ruined structure close to the trig point was once a shooting house. Then I doubled back to where the right of way had branched away NE on another track. I followed this and the road it led to as far as the big layby at the top of Chimney Bank. From here it was a glorious walk south, in what was now unmistakeably spring sunshine, across Spaunton Moor, past Ana Cross and on as far as the point just before Lastingham where there is a meeting of footpaths. The one on my right took me round the back of Camomile Farm and onto the road which I followed about halfway back to Hutton-le-Hole.
Here I wanted to check out the trig point on Riccal Heads so I ventured up a track running between fields. When it got into the wood this took me on a zigzag left and then right a bit higher but not all the way to the top so I had to scramble rather unpleasantly but happily very briefly up the at first desperately steep wooded hillside. When I dId reach the top I felt rather pleased to be the sort of twit who bothers to collect trig points as Riccal Heads turned out to be a fabulously lovely spot with glorious views especially to the southeast. From here a walk along the edge of an empty field led to the footpath that links Hutton-le-Hole with Spaunton which took me steeply but very easily back to the former.
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