Ernaldsti – Percy Cross Rigg

This track, across Hutton Moor and along the ridge Percy Cross Rigg, was an ancient route from Guisborough to Westerdale.  The rigg is named after a cross erected in the 13th century of which only the base remains, the cross having disappeared in the 1960s. The Percys were the lords of Kildale and the route became known as Ernaldsti after Ernaldus de Percy. But the route would have been well used much further into antiquity. It passes the site of an iron age settlement, the ridge being an obvious easy route away from the marshy and wooded valley bottoms. During that period of course there wouldn’t have been the large expanse of heather that we know today, pollen analysis has shown that the vegetation would have been more semi open pasture.