Osmotherley Walk, via Cod Beck Reservoir & the Cleveland Way, North Yorkshire Walks

On the Cleveland Way from Osmotherley, heading towards Scarth Gap, then onto Cod Beck Reservoir.

Osmotherley Circular Walk on the Cleveland Way

Distance: 4.8 miles
Time: 2 hours
Difficulty: Easy

This is a nice little walk on varied terrain, with some excellent views. The walk starts and finishes in Osmotherley in North Yorkshire, which is a lovely little village (good pubs!), and whilst you feel like you are smack bang in the countryside, Osmotherley is only 5minutes off the A19 so is really accessible by car.

Map route of this Osmotherley Circular Walk (clockwise), starting and finishing in Osmotherley, and walking on some of the Cleveland Way Route [Click to image to enlarge]

Here you can see the elevation of the walk, whilst there is not a great deal of walking up and down hills, there is enough to keep the walk interesting and because you start the walk quite high up - the views are pretty good considering there are no steep climbs.

This the first good view on the walk over Osmotherley and this initial section of the walk is on the Cleveland Way path.

Most circular walks in the area follow the Cleveland Way for the first half of the walk - but on this occasion I came off the Cleveland Way for a little bit and headed towards Lady's Chapel. 

Lady's Chapel - it's a little off the beaten track and very peaceful and quiet up here.

As there is no clearly marked foot path through Lady's Chapel you need to just head out the other end and you will eventually see the path

Excellent views as far as the eye can see. Just below this vantage point is the Cleveland Way path which you need to get back on!

At this point I'm on a foot path which is running parallel to the Cleveland Way - but just higher up the hill

It's at these gates where you need to watch out for the path left which will take you back onto the Cleveland Way

This gate to the left is the one to go through to walk through a newly planted wood, down to the Cleveland Way

The long grass here makes the path not too clear - but it's there!
(Note: from the point I headed to Lady's Chapel to here - the paths are not as cleary marked as the Cleveland Way. If you are planning on doing this walk without a map or GPS, I suggest you just stick to the Cleveland Way Route and miss out Lady's Chapel altogether)

Now I'm back on the Cleveland Way and the path is much clearer

This part of the walk is probably the most strenuous as it's uphill for a bit here

More good views - down there somewhere is the A19 

Lots of Foxglove flowers are in bloom at the time of this walk - adding a splash of colour here there and everywhere!

Skirting around the edge of Arncliffe Wood

Approaching the Osmotherley TV Sub Station which looks a little out of place up here. I often wondered what this was up here as you can see it from the car when driving past on the A19 

As the trees of around Arncliffe wood clear and the view opens up you catch a view of the Cleveland Hills and Roseberry Topping in the far distance

Now we are walking on the open moor land and the views are great up here

More great views of the Cleveland Hills

On the Cleveland Way from Osmotherley, heading towards Scarth Gap, then onto Cod Beck Reservior.

At this point this walking route leaves the Cleveland Way and we don't head towards Scarth Gap - but instead head for Cod Beck Reservoir and the road.

A little view of Scarth Gap 

Rather than have to walk along the road to Cod Beck Reservoir, this foot path follows along side the road 

First glimpse of Sheep wash, the car park and Cod Beck

Cod Beck, with the path leading to the Reservoir

A lovely little path through the woodland where you can glimpse Cod Beck Reservoir

The path all around Cod Beck Reservoir is very accessible and you can see why the Reservoir is quite a popular place to park up and walk round

Looking back over Cod Beck Reservoir before this walking route joins the minor road where it's a leisurely walk back to the car.

Back to the car. There's plenty of space on the street to park the car here right where the Cleveland Way footpath from Osmotherley starts.

At the end of one of my most enjoyable shortish walks, Osmotherely has some great pubs and fish & chip shop - so if you have the time - hang around and make the most of the place!

So there you go - another blog post wrapped up. For anyone who lives in the Teesside / North Yorkshire area (like me!) - this is an excellent little walk and one to return to again and again when in need of some fresh air to clear the cob webs! I hope you have found the blog post useful and it inspires you to pay Osmotherley a visit.

Blog Post by Stuart Hodgson, 'The Hiking Photographer'

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I like to travel light and be able to whip my camera out of my pocket quickly and all photos on this page where taken with the Canon Powershot G7 II Compact Camera. The quality of it's output is up there with bigger DSLR camera's. It has a 24mm wide-lens so let's you get more of the landscape scene in the frame (most compacts are 36mm, and most landscape photographers use a wide angle lens which is one of the reasons photos look so good!) It has a load of other great features too. Click the image to find out more!

Stuart Hodgson is an amateur landscape photographer, keen traveller, blogger and outdoors enthusiast. He is also a professional graphic designer, and enjoys linking up with people who share similar interests & passions. You can view lots of his creative work at ww.stuart-hodgson.com

Stuart is also the man behind the 'Leaflet Guru' website which provides one of the best quality leaflet/flyer design and print services around - visit www.leafletguru.co.uk to find out more