Yorkshire Walks

Looking across the River Ouse from Beningbrough to the Moor Monkton water abstraction works

A common blue damsel fly

River cruisers moored on the Ouse

We started walking at about 2.15pm heading upstream following the public footpath along the river bank. Across the river from Beningbrough we could see the Moor Monkton water abstraction works. This large pumping station takes water from the river via a small holding reservoir to pump it almost 80km to Eccup reservoir at Leeds. I believe there is also a smaller pipeline which supplies raw water to the water treatment works at Huby near Easingwold.

Today my friend, Jim, and I had to abandon our planned walk due to our family commitments and instead we did a short riverside walk in the afternoon. The weather was very mixed with shower clouds and sunny spells, but we were lucky enough to avoid the rain. We drove a few miles from home to the hamlet of Beningbrough on the River Ouse. We parked on a wide grass verge next to a farm on the riverside at map ref. SE529577.

Moor Monkton water abstraction works

Cattle coming down for a drink from the Ouse

Path along the boundary of Beningbrough park

Our path along the river bank

Berries of Lords & Ladies or Cuckoo Pint

There is a large information board on the river bank here explaining the plight of the tansy beetle. The tansy beetle relies entirely on the tansy plant as its sole food source. Surprisingly they are ill equipped to find new plants if their home clump dies, so no wonder they are endangered. The colony on the bank of the River Ouse here is the only remaining colony in Britain. It is a large (about 1cm long) iridescent green beetle, but we didn't spot any of them.

We continued along the river bank for about 1km to the corner of the parkland surrounding Beningbrough Hall. There was a large herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle grazing in the park. We followed the path between the park and the river to the point opposite Moor Monkton where the River Nidd joins the River Ouse.

A lovely ash tree by the path

A tansy plant with flower detail inset

The old Beningbrough Hall water tower

Beningbrough Hall had a deep artesian well and I assume that the water stored in the water tower was used to balance out the irregular demand for water used in the hall, with the steady flow of water from the artesian well.

We continued to follow the path along the river bank, past the old brick water tower at map ref. SE513586.

The path along the river bank

Bracket fungus on an oak tree

Crossing the riverside gardens in Newton-on-Ouse

Japanese water balsam infests the river bank

Speckled Wood butterfly

A gatekeeper butterfly - seen here 21 August
Compare with meadow brown seen on route 358

The river bank is overgrown with Japanese water balsam which grows to a height of over 2m. and beyond the gardens the path was waterlogged and completely over grown. We sloshed through the mud and pushed through the water balsam which was about half a metre taller than me.

About 600m further on the path forked. The right hand fork goes into the village of Newton-on-Ouse at the entrance to Beningbrough Hall. We took the right hand fork which continues along the river bank. The path crossed the bottom of the gardens of the houses and the pub on the main street in Newton-on-Ouse.

Newton-on-Ouse from the riverside path

The overgrown riverside path

Small tortoiseshell butterfly

A wall brown butterfly - seen here 21 August

Entering Newton-on-Ouse

The road approaching Beningbrough Hall is lined with cherry trees and some of them were full of very palatable fruit. Beningbrough Hall is a National Trust property and we walked along the permissive path on the drive through the park land.

We emerged onto the road at the edge of Newton-on-Ouse at map ref. SE510601. At the road we turned right to walk along the road through Newton-on-Ouse.

The drive into Beningbrough park

Dying ash tree in the park

Here we had a coffee at one of the outside tables. After our coffee we continued to the gatehouse at the edge of the park at map ref. SE524586.

As we neared the edge of the park we turned right to visit the Beningbrough Hall farm shop.

Beningbrough Hall

Toggenberg goats by the farm shop

Aberdeen Angus bull grazing by the farm shop

Overgrown stile at the concrete parking area

There was no clear path through the barley but the path goes across the field to the gate in the southeast corner of the field. This is not exactly where the path is shown on my Explorer map but as we approached the corner of the field there was a path through the barley.

At the road junction where the drive joins the road there is a large concrete area used for parking by fishermen and walkers and there is a clear fenced track heading south west to the river. Our path is directly from the concrete parking area over a very overgrown stile into a barley field.

Gate house at the end of the drive

Path across the barley fields

Footbridge across a small watercourse

There were free range hens scratching and pecking their way around the field as we crossed to rejoin the path along the river bank at map ref. SE527577. At the river bank we turned left to retrace our steps for about 250m back to our car. The whole walk had been about 8km and it had taken us almost 3 hours to walk including our coffee stop.

Through the gate the path continued through the next field of barley for about 400m to a little grassy valley with a footbridge over a small watercourse. Over the footbridge the path turned right to a stile over a fence. This brought us into a mown field which was apparently used a an extension to the garden of a large house.

River cruiser at Beningbrough village