A Yorkshire Break - 12th to 14th September, 2017

A couple of years ago, Lindsay and I dropped in at the Yorkshire town of Helmsley to take a short break for lunch on our way back home from a stay in Scarborough. We instantly decided that we liked the town, and this feeling was reinforced when we found a local ice cream manufacturer that made the most wonderful ice creams and sold them in a cafe on-site, and then, just a few steps after leaving, found a bakery which sold the most amazing produce including cheese straws 'to die for'. So when Lindsay suggested to me a few weeks ago that it would be good to get away for a couple of nights, Helmsley came to mind - a break almost entirely based on the lure of ice cream and cheese straws!

Helmsley is less than three hours away from home so, on the Tuesday, we timed it so that we would be there around lunch time. We were lucky to find a convenient unrestricted parking space just off the main square and set off to the Ryeburn of Helmsley ice cream shop for an ice cream to set us up before lunch. 

To my concern, I'd noticed that the bakery seemed to have disappeared. We needed, therefore, to find lunch elsewhere, so we set off to look for sustenance. It didn't take long before we ran into a problem! We'd called in at the Oxfam charity shop and, as we were leaving, Lindsay lost her footing on the uneven floor and badly twisted her knee. We carried on for a while, stopping for a sandwich in a coffee shop, but soon Lindsay declared she was in real trouble. I supported her as we returned to the ice cream shop (any excuse!) and, having had our second indulgence of the day, I set off to try and find her a walking stick, which she thought would help her out. It took a while but I found one in the end.

During that time, I'd stopped someone who looked as if they might be 'local' to ask about the bakery. She told me that it was called Cinnamon Twist and was still there, but only open from Wednesday to Friday, and added that their cheese straws were fabulous - I knew we were talking about the same place!

By now, we were able to check in at the Royal Oak and so we headed up to our room and spent most of the rest of the day relaxing and resting Lindsay's knee. We did, however, pop over the road for dinner at the Helmsley Spice Indian restaurant. Lindsay very much enjoyed her meal, but I was a little hamstrung as I have an intolerance of capsicums (bell peppers) and they told me, to my surprise, that all their curries used a pre-prepared sauce that contained peppers! I was advised that my choice was limited to one of the dry tandoori meals, and so settled for a tandoori mixed-grill - it was, as you might expect, a bit dry! We both were also a bit disappointed by the garlic fried rice. We've had this in many places at many times and always the garlic has been well-toasted and contributed a tasty, but relatively subtle, flavour to the rice. This version had masses of slices of barely cooked garlic and was overpowering to the extent that we both spent time picking the garlic out of the rice. Having said that, the service was good, most of the food was fine, and the venue itself was comfortable. It was also obviously well thought of, as it seems that the rest of their customers were 'regulars'.

Our room and bed at the Royal Oak were very comfortable, and we managed a reasonable night's sleep, considering Lindsay's knee problem.

We were awake well before breakfast and I took some shots of the view from the window.

view from Room 3, Royal Oak, Helmsley

The breakfast buffet at the Royal Oak was excellent, and Lindsay's knee was much improved, so we were able to continue to explore the town after breakfast - after popping in for an ice cream of course! 

A visit to the now-open Cinnamon Twist bakery shop resulted in sandwiches (superb), cheese straws (even better than last time), and cakes being purchased for a picnic, after which we set off to explore the roads that travel up to the moors.

There had been very heavy rain in the night, and we'd only been going for less than ten minutes when we came to a ford. The water depth marker was all but up to the 2 foot (0.6 metre) mark, and the flow was an absolute torrent. Even a local in a huge 4x4 didn't risk it. Sadly, I didn't have the presence of mind to take a photo. We turned round and, fortunately, the diversion was not a serious one. 

Our prime targets were the two long dead-end roads which run up the east and west side of Farndale. I chose the east side first. The run was quite scenic but we soon ran into trouble again - there were Pheasant and Red-legged Partridge everywhere - hundreds of them - and all in the road! The Pheasant weren't too bad, and tended to dive into the side of the road, but the partridges took little notice of our approach and just wandered up the road a few metres ahead of us. The problem was so great that Lindsay had to get out of the car and walk ahead shooing the birds out of the way - not great with a bad knee, but the knee also prevented her from driving.  Eventually there was a horrible smell of burning clutch (we were creeping along in an uphill direction) and so we gave up and turned round.

Here's a few shots of a less obstinate bird!

Red-legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa) - Farndale (east side)

Having decided that we'd look to see if the west side of Farndale was any less congested with game birds, we headed back to Church Houses. Noting a sign to the Daffy Caffy on a dead-end road, we thought a stop for refreshment and to give the car's clutch time to cool down might be a good idea. The proprietor of the cafe told us that there was a gentleman down in the York area who was breeding game birds and who then drove up to Farndale to release thousands of them by just off-loading them into the road. I suspect that we may have arrived just after he'd done this!

Farndale west side was somewhat more scenic and birds were seen but not photographed, and it didn't take long for us to reach the end of the road, and turn round again.

A quick perusal of the map had us heading for Gillamore, where we then turned north again for a very pleasant run on a minor road to Cockayne. Here we turned south on a very minor road towards Helmsley. We very soon found an unofficial-looking sign at a fork in the road which indicated that the right fork (which was the one we wanted to take) was not fit for motor vehicles. There was a moment of dilemma before I reckoned that we'd take that road anyway and turn round if it became impassable.

We soon found out why the sign was there, as any relatively low-slung car would have been in trouble. The road was very badly deformed, and we had to crawl along in places, avoiding large ridges and bits that were missing. We have absolutely no regrets, however, that we took this road as after a couple of miles (3km) it improved somewhat and we were out on open moors. 

Unfortunately it started tipping it down with rain soon after this!

Lindsay was the first to spot a Red Grouse. You can see the weather in this next image!

Red Grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica) - East Moors

Not wanting to miss out on this wonderful environment we stopped the car and waited for the rain to ease off somewhat before continuing. We were then seeing plenty more Red Grouse. There was still some colour in the heather which added to the scene.

Red Grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica) - East Moors

We hadn't realised that this road also forded a river but, fortunately, the ford was passable. 

We arrived back in Helmsley just in time for an ice cream before the shop closed!

That night we dined in at the Royal Oak. The food was good, and the service was very helpful, although we ate lightly as we'd overdone it with the picnic lunch!

The following day, after a good breakfast and checking out at the Royal Oak, and having fortified ourselves once more with an ice-cream, we headed north up through Bilsdale, as we'd been recommended it as being particularly scenic. In all honesty, we were both disappointed, and wished we'd returned to East Moors instead to see it in fine weather.  Having reached Stokesley, we headed homeward.

It had been a most enjoyable, if short, break and I believe that we are likely to return here sometime - maybe even next year.

Thank you for dropping by.