A quick drive to Lordstones Country Park, below is the route I walked. Heading clockwise and east along the peaks to Cold Moor where you turn south over the moor and then back to Lordstones via fields and woods.
Another similar, shorter route done in June 2025 this one avoids the climbs.
Setting off from Lordstones along the first path, the Cleveland Way, the view was a little foggy…
…and didn’t get much better as the first uphill climb gets underway.
Heading up to the first peak, it was even foggier.
Keep following the Cleveland Way past Kirby Bank along to the second peak, take a right turn and head along the moors path south, away from the peaks.
A fairly straight track through the moors for over a mile, it was at this point I got flashbacks of The Hound of the Baskervilles. This track over Cold Moor was part of the Chop Gate, Hasty Bank and The Wainstones,
The fog began to clear and as I descended into the valley so the view got better.
This pic below is of the route back to Lordstones, following the treeline up the hill. I often try to pre-empt the map-reading by looking ahead at the view to see where the route will be.
At the southern end of Cold Moor its a right turn, west back to Lordstones. Finding the path down into the valley was a little tricky due to burning.
After possibly using a path to descend into the valley and away from the moors the path was blocked by a barbed wire fence. Nothing a quick bit of climbing could stop.
Passing by Hall Garth I met some locals. Nothing to see here, mooooove along.
Another pic back across the valley from where I had taken the path down from the moors.
Following a footpath around a small wood near High Clay House, it was then just a case of heading uphill to a track in the plantation above. Following a nice level track around the plantation with South Fork Farm on the left. This track I’d spotted from another Lordstones peak, hence why I planned this route to check it out.
Near Harry Wath Wood the track turns back on itself, it is here where you leave the track, taking a a footpath on the right, with a blue footpath marker. Through some trees, a sometimes marshy field and then back to the Cleveland Way where the route was earlier. Finally, before I got back to the car park, I checked out the Lordstones themselves, just off the main path near the Country Park.
