H 03 South-west from Hovingham
Route H 03 - South-west of Hovingham
The full walk is about 5½ miles but there are opportunities for shortening this if time is running short or weather is unfavourable. It is a circular walk over farmland and through woods in the undulating Howardian Hills on land belonging to the Hovingham Hall estate. In summer there are sheep and cattle in some fields and dogs are not allowed on one stretch of path.
There is a free car park at Hovingham Village Hall (opposite the entrance to Hovingham Hall and between The Worsley Arms and The Malt Shovel pubs), OS Explorer map 300 (Howardian Hills and Malton), reference SE 667756. Alternatively, there are usually spaces for roadside parking along the road from Hovingham to Coulton (Park Street, map ref 666755, between the B1257 and a stone gateway).
Walk directions
1. (667756) From the Village Hall, cross the High Street and towards the entrance to Hovingham Hall. In front of the Hall, turn right onto a minor road past the church and, opposite a telephone box, bear left and continue over a bridge across a stream then turn left onto a small road. At the end of a terrace of cottages, turn right and arrive at a more open area where paths and bridleways meet the road. [350 metres from start of walk]
2. (666759) Take the first signed footpath on the left over a stile into a grass field. Continue to follow this path, over another stile and across a farm track and on for 700m to a stile, beyond which a permissive path is straight on and a public footpath is to the left. Follow the path to the left up to a gateway and down, over a stone bridge to a white gate onto the Hovingham-Coulton road. [1000m]
3. (660755) Turn right onto the road or take a permissive path within the field, parallel to the road, for about 500 yards to a white gate on the right opposite a footpath sign on the left. Cross the road and follow the footpath sign on the left into woodland. [400m]
4. (656753) Follow a curving grassy track through a gate and on to a stile beyond which the woodland opens out into fields. Continue with a fence to the left (in summer within one field there may be an electrified wire fence with a wooden section to climb over) and continue to a wooden kissing gate to a farm track. [1250m]
5. (9649743) Turn left onto the farm track and follow it past Hovingham Lodge Farm where the track becomes a tarmac road eventually goes uphill to a junction where the tarmac road goes to the right, a bridleway to the left. [750m]
6. (652738) Turn left onto the bridleway, continue down to a gate and bridge then up on the other side to the Terrington to Hovingham road. [700m]
7. (660739) Turn right onto the road and follow the road for 150m to a wooden bridleway sign on the left and follow this along the track that is the drive to Airyholme Farm. [Short cut 1050m: Opposite the first farm along the drive (Moor House Farm), turn left between two fields and continue on a path through a wood, eventually meeting the Ebor Way bridleway near the far end of the wood see 9; this cuts just over a mile from the total length of the walk]. Follow the track for 1350m to the entrance to Airyholme farm and bear left around the outside of farm buildings on a grass path down to a stream where it meets Ebor Way. [1650m]
8. (675733) Turn left onto the path, Ebor Way, around a field edge and through a wood alongside a stream for about 550m. Shortly after emerging from the wood, look for a gate on the right with a bridleway waymark and take the path through this gate. [650m]
9. (671737) The path emerges from trees into a field, where orchids may be spotted, and then through a wood following bridleway waymarks for about half a mile to the point where the short cut re-joins the main path. [600m]
10. (666743) Continue along the bridleway track alongside a field then between hedges to the road into Hovingham. [1050m]
11. (667752) Turn right onto the road and, where a post-and-rail fence begins, turn left onto a path that joins the High Street. Continue along the High Street to the Village Hall Car Park. [450m]
