Yorkshire Walks

'The Mere' in Fridaythorpe on the Yorkshire Wolds

It was a grey drizzly miserable sort of a morning. I met a friend of mine at the duck pond, rather grandly called 'The Mere', in Fridaythorpe on the Yorkshire Wolds (map ref. SE 874591) at about 10 o'clock. We set off heading roughly westwards on the route of the Wolds Way to cross Brubber Dale about 1km west of the village. We climbed over the hill out of Brubber Dale past Gill's Farm to cross a minor road and then drop down into Thixendale. Where we reached the path in the bottom of Thixendale (map ref. SE 845590) the Wolds Way turns right to head north, but we turned left off the Wolds way here and headed south up Thixendale.

>Brubber Dale about 1km east of Fridaythorpe

After about 300m the valley forks and we took the left hand fork, called Pluckham Dale, which led us up to the main road (A166) at map ref. SE 850574. We walked along the road for about 700m to a crossroads at map ref. SE 857576. Here we turned right off the main road and almost at once turned left on to a bridleway across the fields for about 1.5km to Horse Dale.

Following the Wolds Way into Brubber Dale

Looking back into Brubber Dale

There is no public footpath down Horse Dale but some of the dry valleys on the Wolds are now open to walkers under the CRoW Act ("Right to Roam") and Horse Dale is one of them. Why they are not all open I do not know. Maybe some land owners have more influence than others? Anyway we followed a track down Horse Dale for almost 2kms to rejoin the Wolds Way where Horse Dale meets Holm Dale. We followed the Wolds Way up Holm Dale and back into Fridaythorpe.

The Wolds Way approaching Gill's Farm

Texel type ewe with its new lamb on the edge of Thixendale

Woodland near the head of Pluckham Dale

The whole route had been just over 12km and had taken us about 4 hours to walk including a short refreshment stop. As we got back to the cars the rain turned heavier and we were glad to be heading home for a nice hot bath.

Stone gateway marker with the inscription Eboracum (Roman name for York) These markers are at every gateway on this estate and we were trying to make out the Latin inscription on one in another gateway when after a while we realised it said 'Keep Britain Tidy' in English!

Tall horse chestnut trees at the head of Holm Dale

Huge rat colony in an old tip on the edge of Fridaythorpe