Looking north east from Cat Bank, just south of Marske, your gaze will direct you over the foreground of West Wood to the distant ridge top cliffs of Applegarth Scar and Whitcliffe Scar. Whitcliffe Scar is identified by its appearance beneath the twin aerial masts located on the south edge of Richmond Out Moor.

The Coast to Coast path rolls through East Applegarth which is 100 yards south of Whitcliffe Scar. At the top of the Scar is the monument in memory of Willance's horse. The monument is accessed either from a path near to the twin aerial towers on Richmond Out Moor, or from the bridle path stretching from Deep Dale to High Leases Farm on the east of Whitcliffe Wood.

The twin aerial towers on Richmond Out Moor are located very close to a path across the moorland from the Hurgill Road to the edge of Whitcliffe Scar and the precise location of the memorial.

The path to Willance's Leap from Hurgill Road is actually quite a good one. Despite the way it looks it is quite dry and easy to follow. It leads directly to a gate that intersects with the bridle path along the ridge top. The memorial is yards from the gate.

Robert Willance was hunting with his young horse on a day in November 1606. While riding a mist descended and occluded the view of their surrounds, and the mist continued to thicken. He was near the edge of Whitcliffe Scar at the time and something spooked his horse, which made a number of lunges, the last of which took them both off the edge of the vertiginous cliffs, to land 212 feet below.

A stone sits on the cliff top a few yards from the memorial. The inscription, now a little weathered, reads: "Hear us. Glory be to our merciful God who miraculously preserved me from the danger so great."

Immediatelly following Robert Willance's accident, knowing he would not be found until after the mist had lifted and the day past, he used his hunting knife to slit open his dead horse's belly and place his damaged leg inside to keep it warm. He was discovered the following morning and taken to his home in Richmond. The warmth from the horse's belly had contributed to delaying the onset of gangrene, which helped preserve his life.

Two years after Willance's accident he became the first Alderman (Lord Mayor) of Richmond. His comfortable house in Richmond is now addressed as 24 Frenchgate, or Willance House. He passed away in 1616, 10 years after the accident, and is buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Parish Church, close to his home.

Robert Willance's leg was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Richmond, in 1596. He died 10 year's later and was buried in the same grave as his leg. His grave is at the west end of the churchyard close to the boundary wall. The gravestone has a fragment of one of the original memorial stones placed on Whitcliffe Scar.

Willance's grave is as close to his former home in Frenchgate as it was possible to get it. There is a back yard door in the boundary wall between his house and St Mary's Church, allowing passage from one to the other. The wall has a trio of arched ornate niched carvings that identify his grave.

Willance's domicle in Frenchgate, Richmond is a 400 year old Grade ll Listed Building in a Georgian cobbled street, and is currently used as a Luxury 4 Star Bed & Breakfast guest house. The house backs onto St Mary's Church, where Robert Willance is buried.

Coast to Coast Trail Guide

"Hiking the Coast to Coast" is a digitally enhanced eBook available from Apple Books for all people who have either a Mac, an iPhone or an iPad, and is designed to accompany you on your walk of the Coast to Coast path. The trail guide contains Ordnance Survey maps and other advanced mapping features, step by step directions, hundreds of colour photographs, details of the route, its conditions in different weather and research snippets relating to places of interest along the way.