Doing the Sheep Walk

A view familiar to those walking the Cleveland Way and Coast to Coast trails. Both long-distance footpaths pass through this opening flanked by the sandstone rocks known as the Wainstones. Climbers name this gap the Sheep Walk, though sheep must resort to some scrambling to navigate it. Legend has it that a Danish chief met his end here, giving rise to the name: apparently, “Wain” traces back to the Old Saxon ‘Wanian,’ meaning ‘grief’ or ‘lamentation’, thus marking these as the stones of sorrow.

This Danish leader is said to have been Wada, a towering figure who dwelled at Mulgrave Castle, near Whitby. Another telling of the tale recounts a feud between him and King Ethelred, culminating in a clash at Whalley, Lancashire, in 794. There, Wada’s forces suffered a crushing defeat, and soon after, he succumbed to some illness. Perhaps he met his fate on his retreat back to Mulgrave?¹‘Kirkby-In-Cleveland. Its Wain Stones, Effigies, and Ghosts. By Hugh W. Cook | Northern Weekly Gazette | Saturday 10 September 1904 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2024. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003075/19040910/060/0009> [accessed 18 March 2024]

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  ‘Kirkby-In-Cleveland. Its Wain Stones, Effigies, and Ghosts. By Hugh W. Cook | Northern Weekly Gazette | Saturday 10 September 1904 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2024. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003075/19040910/060/0009> [accessed 18 March 2024]