Barb & John's Hols: UK Trip Day 18 Hutton-le-Hole

Lunch at Hutton-le-Hole

The weather fined up today after two solid days of rain. The plan for the day was for us to leave after breakfast and head towards Duncombe Park at Helmsley for a look around there before meeting up with Susan and Geoffrey at Hutton-le-Hole, where the Ryedale Folk Museum and various craft stores are situated, and have lunch with them in a pub.

We met an early hurdle (hurdle? Read on - there's no way I'd jump over it!) when we turned into the road with the ford crossing only to find our path blocked by a huge truck. The reason the truck was stopped very soon became clear. During the night the level of the beck had risen by, oh, perhaps 10 feet or more, flooding the entire area. The water was running very fast and there was no way even a big truck could go through. We managed to turn around and take another route. As we approached the ford we could see the surrounding fields were flooded, taking on the appearance of an inland sea. The "other route" was the one that had scared the pants off Barb on the day we arrived, but today it seemed really, really good!

The flooded beck

We took an A road down towards Pickering through the heart of the Yorkshire Moors rather than risk getting stuck on one of the smaller B or C roads. This was a really beautiful scenic drive. We pulled over into a parking area on the side of the road to view a particularly lovely vista. Signage identified it as the Hole of Horcom. There's a rather unbelievable legend attached to this site, but it did provide a great walkers location and a lot of them were changing into their very serious walking boots complete with gaiters and gathering their walking poles to attack this challenging hike. Just to be clear, it was a bright but cold blustery day. Those serious walkers would have been there even if the previous day's rain continued.

Hole of Horcum

A little further down the road a castle-like structure hove into view, except it clearly was far too modern to be a castle. We couldn't see any symbol on our map designating a castle .... what on earth is it? As we neared the penny dropped for John. It was the RAF Fylingdales early warning radar. Russia look out!

Is it a castle? No .... a radar

It was only a few more miles on to Helmsley where we turned off to Duncombe Park. We drove up a very long and impressive driveway, passing a folly with Grecian columns and a field of sheep and cows gently grazing by the road. It was rather idyllic and lovely. We found the Birds of Prey park easily, with a busload of young school kids lining up to go in, but there didn't appear to be signage to the manor house. We parked in the car park and walked up the road to find the entrance. Turns out we were probably trespassing. Apparently the house is no longer open to the public (since 2011!). Oh well ....

Duncombe Park folly

The Birds of Prey museum

Barb trespassing at Duncombe Park

We did wonder why there was no-one else there.

We drove back down the hill towards Helmsley and Barb was somewhat mollified when she saw a castle ruin appear at the entrance to the park, which we hadn't noticed when we drove in. We parked up and took a closer look. It's lovely. A ruin, but with quite a bit intact. Oh joy, oh rapture! The town of Helmsley was actually rather nice too. Lots of the buildings had colourful pot plants and hanging baskets all around. What's more, we were able to find a tea shop with a good hot pot of tea.

Yay! Helmsley Castle

It's a gorgeous castle too!

Helmsley is a pretty village.

They had lovely vege patch/allotment near the castle

Downtown Helmsley

The castle again

How adorable is this?

We still hadn't heard from Susan, who was going to call us when they were leaving Danby, but we headed to Hutton-le-Hole anyway to take a look around while we waited for them to arrive. We were walking towards the Ryedale Folk museum when we heard someone call our names from the direction of the pub - Susan and Geoffrey had also just arrived. They had tried to call and email us, but it didn't get through because of poor reception.

John and Geoffrey wait with the dogs outside the pub

Hutton-le-Hole

Exploring the craft shops

We had a really tasty pub lunch and the two dogs were allowed into the dining area with us too. Afterwards we strolled off for a look around the craft shops. They were a little underwhelming in truth (Hey! Wotabout the earings your ~~long suffering~~ devoted husband gave you?), but it was pleasant walking around in the sunshine and we did find a shop selling very cheap ice-creams. Happiness!

John and Susan

Oooh! What lovely earings
(No, you can't se them, they're inside the shop)

Yummy ice-creams!

We went our separate ways again. We traced our path back towards Danby, stopping off to have a look at Scaling Dam where there is a sailing club and pleasure boats for hire. It was still very windy and choppy on the dam. No-one was out in a boat and we drove on.

Out of interest on the way back we went to check out the ford from the other side. It turns out that the water was still five feet over the road! Gee what happens if it rains for a week?