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YORKSHIRE WOLDS: Huggate - Haywold
A 10mile circuit from the highest village on the Yorkshire Wolds
This is an ideal winter walk on the Wolds using grassy dales, the Haywold Bridle Road and farm roads to the south of Huggate. The route crosses several minor roads, all of which provide alternative ways back to Huggate should the need arise. End your day with food and drink at The Wolds Inn, or tea, coffee and homemade cakes at Rachel's Walnut Cottage Tea Room
Fact File
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Distance
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16.5km (10¼ miles)
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Time
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4 hours
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Map
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OS Explorer 294 (Market Weighton & Yorkshire Wolds Central)
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Start/Parking
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Roadside parking by the green in Huggate (Grid Ref: SE 881553) or at the Wolds Inn with permission
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Terrain
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Field paths, bridleways & minor roads.
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Grade
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*** (moderate)
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nearest Town
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Pocklington
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Refreshments
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Rachel's Walnut Cottage Tea Room (01377 288378).
The Wolds Inn, Huggate (Closed Mondays - check opening times tel: 01377 288217.
Click here for website: The Wolds Inn
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Toilets |
none
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Public Transport
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Limited shoppers bus service EYMS 199 from Pocklington (Tuesdays only)
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Suitable for
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for everyone.
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Stiles
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5
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Route created using TrackLogs Digital Mapping
Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
- (Start) Set off down through the village, passing the green and St Mary’s church, with its spire. Go down the lane and take the left turn for Glebe Farm (SP Yorkshire Wolds Way). At the farm keep left along the footpath bypassing the farm to rejoin the farm road. Walk along the road to its junction with York Lane. Cross straight over and follow the field headland bridleway to Pocklington Lane. Turn right along this lane, passing the turn to Millington, and walk for about 1km to Cobdale Cottage.
- (4.2km, 2½ miles) Turn left through the gate to join the Haywold Bridle Road. This ancient green lane crosses the well-drained high ground of the Wolds for about 12km towards Driffield. It provides good walking for the winter months, and this route follows it for about 6km (4 miles), keeping at around 160m above sea level with views south across the Wolds. After 1.5km you reach Mill Lane which you cross and continue in an easterly direction. Another 2km brings you to the road from North Dalton, and once again cross straight over. Two fields on, the otherwise unerring west-east direction of the old road is interrupted by a right-left around a field side before regaining its course. 1.5km (1 mile) after the zig-zag, look out for a footpath (yellow waymark) on the left.
- (10.6km, 6½ miles) Here leave the Bridle Road to head north, down by a hedge and up past woodland to meet the Tibthorpe Road opposite Freshlands Farm. Across the road continue along the farm road which starts to descend into Aunham Dale. In summer the rolling landscape ahead of you of will be one expanse of golden corn. About 0.5km from Freshlands, a footpath (the Chalklands Way) crosses the farm road. Turn left here and walk along the top of some big fields before bearing right past woodland to arrive at the Wetwang Road.
- (13.7km, 8½ miles) Once again cross the road and walk down a farm track into woodland.Turn left and once past the wood you descend into Shortlands Dale. Walk down through Shortlands Dale and Oxlands Dale, with their wooded eastern slopes, to reach a junction of Dales. Go through gates turning left into Cow Dale. Walk up the dale, where there most likely will be sheep, not cows, to a stile onto a farm road.Turn left and walk up the road back into Huggate. (16.5km, 10¼ miles)
Along the Way
Huggate is the highest village on the Yorkshire Wolds at 170m (550ft) above sea level. On the village green there is the site of a well, which at 365ft, is said to be one of the deepest in England. Unusually for the Wolds there is also a pond, situated on a bed of clay overlying the chalk.
Today’s walkers and riders have much to thank the Enclosure Act of 1795 for, which stated that the Hawold Bridle Road should be a ‘bridleway for all time’.
Arnold Underwood & Suzanne Watson (Dec 2013, updated Nov 2018)
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