I ate my sandwiches in the shadows of Byland Abbey, then slipped into the wooded hills which rise steeply from the ruins. Wandering in the March sunshine, I tracked a beck to its source, trailed a herd of roe deer, then followed a badger track. When I’d found the badgers’ sett, I decided to return to the abbey. Suddenly, I realised that I was lost. It didn’t matter. Where better to spend one of the first days of spring than in the hills above Byland Abbey?