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Dales Trails

On the Yorkshire Wolds/photo provided by Stuart Kemp

Looking across the Wolds/from a photo by Stuart Kemp

EAST YORKSHIRE - Wetwang

'Summer on the Wolds'

A walk from the interesting East Yorkshire village with the unusual name across the rolling landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds.

Fact File

Distance 12.8km (8 miles)
Time 4 hours
Map OS Landranger106 or Explorer 294
Start/Parking Wetwang (Lay-by near the Beverley Road junction)
Terrain Undulating field paths and bridleways.
nearest Town Driffield
Refreshments Pubs and fish & chip shop in Wetwang
Toilets
Public Transport Acklams service 135 from Driffield (infrequent)
Suitable for all
Stiles 6

Route created using TrackLogs Digital Mapping

Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

  1. (Start) From the lay-by, cross the Beverley road and take the back lane through the village. Take a left turn down a lane, which passes the new village hall and then council houses as it heads straight into open country. Once past the sewage works the lane becomes an un-metalled track.

  2. (2.25km, 1½ miles) The track climbs to meet another at a T-junction. Turn right here. There are extensive views across the rolling Wolds landscape. This track provides a wild life corridor through this intensively farmed countryside. Finches and long-tailed tits flit through trees and bushes and hares will be set galloping off across the farmland.

  3. (3.25km, 2 miles) Old maps show this ancient green lane continuing down into the shallow hollow of Aunham Dale, but that track has long since disappeared under the plough in the need for ever-larger fields. Today's path, clearly waymarked, keeps to top of the field alongside the hedgerow. In the dale to the right, a clump of trees marks the site of Aunhamdale Farm. Eventually the path, still by the hedge, swings round to emerge onto the Wetwang - Huggate road by a small wood near Foxcovert Farm. Turn left and then immediately right along a track.

  4. (4.75km, 3 miles) In about 100yds turn left (way-mark) by woodland along a farm track. Go through a gate and take the lower track, which descends quite steeply into Shortlands Dale. Straight ahead can be seen the spire of Huggate church. The track swings round to a gate & stile at a junction of dales. This is a delightful, sheltered spot with its wooded hillsides - ideal for a break. There are often numerous pheasants around here.

  5. (5.5km, 3½ miles) Your route continues along the Oxlands Dale to another gate & stile beyond which stands a large lone tree. Here a path from Huggate joins along Cow Dale from the left. Continue along the valley, which begins to open out. Do not follow the track up the hillside - go through the gate (waymarked) and keep to the grass track alongside the wire fence. This track heads unerringly through Rabbit Dale with woodland on your right and farmland on your left. Go straight on where a marker shows a path going left (not shown on the OS map), cross over a track leading into the woods, and continue to the end of the dale.

  6. (9 km, 6 miles) The path now seems to lose its way and turns left alongside a hedge. About 50m (55yds) from the corner, look out for an inconspicuous way-mark by a gap in this hedge. Go through the gap and follow a faint path, which climbs out of the dale straight up a steep grassy bank. At the top there are the remains of a stile in a non-existent fence. Walk straight across the field towards a signpost and from there cross the next field to another footpath sign by a gate onto the main A166 York - Bridlington road.

  7. (11.5km, 7 miles) At the main road turn right back towards Wetwang. There is a wide verge but once past the Malton turn cross over where a footpath commences and follow this into the village

Along the Way

Wetwang has been in the news recently and has featured in the TV series 'Meet the Ancestors' after the discovery of the burial site of an Iron Age Warroir Princess - 'Boedicea of the Wolds'

The large pond at the eastern end of Wetwang is known to have existed for about 600 years - it is lately famous for being the home of a pair of black swans.

Arnold Underwood (Jan 2002, updated Aug 2020)

This page was created by
Arnold Underwood

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