Hasty Bank

A view west from Carr Ridge towards Hasty Bank. Whether the gulley is natural or man made, a holloway  created by the centuries of use, is uncertain.  The track is certainly of antinquity, an old way called Haggesgate which linked the market town of Stokesley to the Thurkilsti road heading south along Bransdale Rigg to Welburn. In parts of Yorkshire, ‘hagg’ still apparently means an area of woodland on a sloping bank. Thurkilsti is Thurkill’s hill road and is first mentioned in Walter Espec‘s grant of land to Rievaulx Abbey in 1145.

Today the National Park Authority has laid a neat paved path to the right avoiding the gulley. It’s a popular route carrying long distance footpaths such as the Cleveland Way and the Lyke Wake Walk.