OK. Cards on the table. This is a stonking good walk from Romaldkirk.

Admittedly, as well as the lovely route all the ingredients came together on a beautiful green May day in the north of England with our daughter back from university and good friends to share the walk.

Before the walk we looked in on the tomb of Sir Hugh Fitz Henry in St Romalds church. He was lord of this area, who died of his wounds after fighting the Scots as part of King Edward Longshanks’ army. It was rough in these parts in the 13th Century!

His tomb is well worth a visit – very old looking and tucked quietly away.

The walk weaves between houses before following a wooded path towards the nearby fields. At this time of year the wildflowers in these fields are AMAZING. We walked dreamily through knee high buttercups and clover, past a wrecked farmhouse and on down the sparkling emerald green valley with the river Tees to the left, tumbling along with us.

Lunch was taken on springy green turf beside a babbling brook. Really. It was.

The return leg of this walk is lovely, arm swinging, strolling land – in fact the whole walk is like that. Not for us the hard toil of macho steep walks, getting ‘miles under the belt’, we like our walks gentle, beautiful and enriching.

This walk is certainly in that category.