Lastingham and Appleton-le-Moors

Ana Cross and Lastingham Knoll

Five and three quarter miles with 220 metres of ascent and about two and a half hours, rising directly out of the village onto Spaunton Moor to the tall stone cross at Ana Cross and returning over Lastingham Knoll; the climb is steep for the first half mile and the moor path is peaty and wet in the hollows. It starts at St Mary's church in Lastingham, whose Norman crypt is worth ten minutes before you set off, and parking is limited to a handful of roadside spaces so an early arrival matters at weekends. The village springs and the moor becks provide water, and the moor is wide open ground for a dog that will come back, but sheep graze the village and the whole moor freely, and leads are needed on the open moor from 1 March to 31 July for ground-nesting birds.