After the wet [wet??…Ed] January and February we snatched a couple of shortish walks to stop us going round the bend…even more than we are now. The Dales are always to be preferred in wet weather, as the underlying limestone drains away the water and leaves the ground moderately dry, whereas the North Yorks Moors are invariably very muddy – unless you stick to the newly created gravel and stone tracks formed by the shooting brigade.

However, we’re always on the lookout for a good café, pub or tea room to provide essential sustenance for aged bodies so this time it was a walk between two favourites – spreading the risk as it were.

We started at Rievaulx Abbey, an English Heritage spot located as all the other great abbeys in North Yorkshire [Fountains, Byland, Mount Grace, Jervaulx] in an absolutely idyllic valley. Despite the lack of medical care, the monks must have a pretty cushy life. The relatively small number of yer actual monks being waited on hand and foot by hundreds of serfs. Growing vegetables, brewing beer, keeping livestock. Still, not medical care…makes you think.

The tea room at Rievaulx is beautiful. Contemporary building with white stained timber portal frames, their centres diminishing as you look along the inside to the window at the end, giving an enhanced sense of perspective. Food’s not bad either.

So, we walk from Rievaulx to Helmsley [or Hemsley as a local signpost calls it] for lunch in the walled garden. Now in the GFG, it offers shelter and warmth, great food and drinks and just the right distance for a steady, largely flat walk. They also have several cookery books to browse, including several copies of the Ballymaloe Cookery School cookery book. They’ve got a nice hotel too. As we’re busy photographing recipes a couple at the next table sign its praises. On the list then…

Café Vine House Helmsley Walled Garden – in the Good Food Guide – and why not?