Day 12… Thursday 10th May

Richmond to Danby Wiske (18 miles - total so far 147)

We chose not to follow Wainright’s route for this particular leg of the walk. Passing through the Vale of Mowbray, we were conscious of the different terrain and landscape we were now encountering and much of the walk was through farmers fields where we no longer saw sheep but cattle in abundance. The cows seemed keen to get to know us and we had to take evasive action on more than one occasion feeling quite intimidated by their demeanor. (I was reminded about the saying that ‘the farmer allows you to cross his field for free, but the bull charges’!)

We crossed the A1 at Catterick and in what had become increasingly blustery conditions we saw many fallen branches and could smell the clover, barley and of course the oil seed rape which is so prevalent at this time of the year. We also heard cuckoos and woodpeckers seemingly encouraging us on our way.

At St Mary’s Church, Bolton on Swale we came across an obelisk which bears a plaque to one Henry Jenkins who died in 1670 at the grand age of 169, and subsequently passed Kiplin Hall built in 1621 by James the first for his Secretary of State. This is the finest example of red brick Jacobean architecture.

On the final leg of our walk today we came across a hangar in a field in which there was a Piper Club aircraft and we learned from it’s owner that at one time it was used to count reindeer over Lapland.

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