Over the moor

Today was one of those hikes that stay in the memory.
I was given a lift from my B&B up the steep hill to the White Horse that keeps watch over the prettiest village of Kilburn to start my journey to Osmotherley.
Under a bright sun and a cloudless sky the route followed the high ridge that forms the rim of the North Yorkshire Moors.
Low Town Brow - Ivy Scar - Roulston Scar - Knowlson’s Drop - Sutton Bank passing the Yorkshire Gliding Club who flew above me during the day.
The open pasture turned to wooded slopes and plantation. Great Relief Pot, Fairies Parlour, Garbutt Wood, White Mare Crag, Hambleton Down, Hambleton Mosses, Hill Fort Windypit, Boltby Scar, Sneck Yate.
Then out onto one of the most beautiful scenes. Soft, rolling sheep pasture, soft underfoot, heading to High Barn with its knoll of great trees, bright with new leaves. Upper and Lower Paradise. Paradise today but probably hard, high living in harsher weather. (Extra)
Briefly into Boltby Woods - bluebells and wild garlic.
Then, at Steeple Cross, suddenly out onto the moor and the ancient drove road, drystone wall on my left stretching to infinity, heather moorland to my right, not yet in bloom and the drove road before me, rutted, stony, sun-baked hard, almost white under the sun and hard, hard walking. Shadeless, the track for ever snaking away into the distance, its end never seeming any closer for mile upon mile upon mile. Lunch crouched in the lee of a turn in the stone wall at White Gill Head - oatcakes, cheese, apples and nuts and a lighter backpack.
A left turn onto Hambleton Street under Black Hambleton Moor with its grouse butts and ancient tumuli nestling low in the heather.
To Hambleton End and Square Corner, heather moorland changing to high pasture and, at last, off the moor and down into Oak Dale over stone-slabbed steps. Osmotherley in sight and the chiming of its church bell. The path twists and turns along Oakdale Beck, and then past the rolling meadows of Whitehouse Farm, the route makes its final demand - steep, knee-aching steps up Middlestye Bank before finally leading through the twisting cobbled alleyways of Osmotherley and a beautiful ice-cream from the village shop.
About 13 miles and 6 hours. No time for sketching and I am very weary. Fish & chips on the village green and an early night.