H 02 Hovingham, Cawton and Coulton

Route H 02 - Hovingham, Cawton and Coulton

The walk is mainly on firm tracks through agricultural land and forestry with some views from Cawton Heights.

Start near the Spa Tearoom in Hovingham for a walk of either 5 miles* (2-2½ hours) with cars at both ends or 7½ miles (3-3¾ hours) circular. See OS Explorer Map 300 “Howardian Hills and Malton” (map ref SE667758).

Walk directions

1.  From the car parking place (map ref. 667758), cross the stream and turn left. At a junction with a farm drive, turn right following waymarks for 100m to a footpath signpost near a children’s playground. [total 250m]

2.  (666759) Turn left onto a firm bridleway track [Ebor Way] following the main waymarked track for 2500m to join a road at a bend. Continue straight on along the road through Cawton village to the last house on the left. [3000m] 

3.  (639768) Keep slightly left on a farm track going uphill (the road bears right, downhill). Follow the track [Green Lane] over Cawton Heights with views back towards Stonegrave and later views ahead to the south. Continue ahead where the track joins the drive to Syke Gate farm and follow the tarmac drive to meet a public road. [1850m]

4.  (629755) Turn sharp left onto the road, cross to the other side and walk alongside a fence to its end and then about the same distance to a forest track on the right. [150m]

5.  (630753) Turn right and follow the track straight ahead, with a valley where trees have been felled to the right. Eventually, the track bends to the left and shortly after this, keep right and follow a track at the edge of the forest that continues into the trees and bends left and right in sight of a stone wall to emerge from the trees onto a road.  [1050m] 

6.  (629743) Turn left onto the road and continue downhill to a crossroads. [500m]

7.  (364744) The road ahead goes to Hovingham, possible roadside car parking over the crossroads for the shorter walk option*

For the longer walk, turn right into Coulton and walk through the village for 600m to the far end, just past a bungalow on the left, to a wooden gate on the left (637739). Go through the gate and diagonally right across a field to the far corner. Slightly left through another gate along a field edge onto a track that goes through a gate. Through the gate, follow the left boundary of the field until the hedgerow ends and continue downhill into a valley then through a gate into a boggy area and across this to a small footbridge. [1600m]

8.  (647741) Cross the footbridge and continue with a stream on the left, keeping out of the overgrown area to a fence at the far end. Turn left through a gate and right to follow the path alongside the stream until it meets a track at a wooden signpost. [400m]

9.  (649744) Turn left onto the track, cross the stream and turn right through a wooden gate and follow the bank of the stream. After crossing a footbridge over a tributary to the stream, continue over a stile into a wooded area and follow the wide grass path until it becomes a more solid track and goes through a gate to a road. [1200m]

10.       (656753) Turn right onto the road then cross the road and over a stile onto a permissive path to avoid walking along the road. Approaching a stone bridge, move to towards a wood on the left and meet the track that runs from the road and over the bridge. [400m] 

11.       (660756) Turn left onto the track and through a gate then follow the right-hand boundary of the field to a stile. Turn right, over the stile and continue on a waymarked path towards Hovingham. Nearing the village, cross a footbridge then go over a track and over a stile and across a field that leads to a stile onto the Ebor Way track near to the play area. [700m]

12.       (666759) Turn right onto the track and left alongside a stream. Cross the first or second bridge to get back to the start of the walk. [250m] 

*Because the full walk is rather longer than the usual 5 mile distance, for a group of walkers it is suggested that suitable arrangements are made to park some cars near Coulton (which is 2 miles from Hovingham) to reduce the walk distance to 5 miles.