Route:

  From the carpark, go more or less straight across the main road to a small footpath that leads to a wider track. Follow this uphill and around to the right and the Cleveland Way comes in from the left alongside a wall. You soon reach a stile over the wall and the Cleveland Way is marked this way.

  Follow the Cleveland Way all the way to Lordstones! There are 3 climbs along the way, steep but short and the tops are soon reached. The tops are flat and the view of the Tees Valley is a welcome distraction all the way along this section. The third summit has a viewpoint with an identification cairn naming the various aspects of the view. There are benches around Lordstones for lunch or use the cafe itself.

  Go through the carpark to the road, turn left and then right onto a track marked Thwaites House. Continue past the house into fields and the path is well marked all the way to Staindale.

  Continue through the farmyard and a couple of gates. The main path continues along the wall but a path leads off down the hillside, through another gate and then down to cross the stream. Turn right on the other side of the stream. The next junction was poorly marked on our visit so turn left uphill before the trees. The obvious summit is your goal for this section so make your way through the fields towards the top. We went just over the top towards a small group of trees where it was sheltered and had second lunch here.

  Down the hill to the road, straight across and onto the track opposite. This leads past a lodge to a house on a sharp corner. Our path goes into their garden initially but stays left of the buildings and then crosses the fields behind. Drop down the hill and follow the path along the fence along the top of the trees. A stile takes you into the trees, down to the stream and over a wooden bridge. Follow the path left and up to the farm.

  Turn left through the farmyard and continue along a track all the way up to the saddle (which you will recognise from earlier). Ignore the Cleveland Way and head slightly downhill to a large forest track. Turn right here and follow all the way back to the start.

NB - there is a permissive Bridleway slightly lower down the hill which also leads back to the start. This was blocked with logging work when we walked here but it is a good route back to the start (and, technically, the permissive way but the top track is clearly well used).

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Our verdict:

This is a walk of two halves. The first along the Cleveland Way has excellent views over the Tees Valley. On a clear day, views of the industry and docks make for good conversation that kept the Little Chaps moving and the path is excellent which also helps. No navigation required to get from Clay Bank to Lordstones (we have not yet sampled this cafe) and it would be easy to return on the Bridleway back to the carpark avoiding all the climbs.

Our additional loop goes into more varied farmland and we feel adds more to the walk than simply returning along the northern edge for the whole way. 

Heading East can be a good option when the weather over the Pennines is poor and this was less than 90mins drive from Leeds. It is a lovely area and well worth the early start.

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