Start of our walk at the car park off the access road from Leyburn Road A6108
The weather forecast for today was predicting torrential rain all over the place, but the local forecast for Masham showed the wet front curling round Masham during the morning with sunny spells and no rain until the afternoon. My friend, Jim, and I drove out to the Marfield Wetland Nature Reserve. About 2km north west of Masham market square along the road to Leyburn opposite Mile House Farm there is a narrow access road off the A6108 to the right. We turned right here off the Leyburn Road along this rough access road. After about 350m from the Leyburn Road we turned right off the access road into a small car park serving the Marfield Wetland Nature Reserve. |
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Leaving the car park on the path round the reserve
A black headed gull seen from the hide
The hide was open so we went inside and sat on the padded bench looking out of the hide over one of the flooded gravel pits below the hide. There were not many birds to be seen, a number of black headed gulls but with the black heads almost all white for the winter, a few mallard ducks and a pair of swans. |
Looking into the car park from the entrance there is a footpath leaving the far right hand corner of the car park. We set off along this path and after about 70m we came to a birdwatching hide called "High-Ridge Crest Hide 3" according to a large sign clearly visible as we approached.
View from the High-Ridge Crest Hide 3
Black headed gulls seen from the hide
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Leaving the hide to continue along the path round the reserve
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Path from the hide heading towards Leyburn Road
Following the path next to Leyburn Road
Turning off the path to the next hide
After about 200m along the bridleway we came to a pedestrian gate on out left to another birdwatching hide. On the way to the hide we passed "The Bug House" an elaborate structure with accommodation for all manner of insects. This hide is called "Westside View Hide 2". We went into the hide and found another padded bench to sit on looking out over another flooded gravel pit. |
We stayed in the hide for a few minutes and then continued on our way following a fenced path towards the Leyburn Road. After about 300m the path turned left and continued as a public bridleway alongside the Leyburn Road with the road just over the hedge on our right.
Left turn going parallel to Leyburn Road, on our right
Boardwalk along a muddy bit of the path
The "Bug House" by the path to the hide
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"Westside View Hide 2" overlooking another flooded gravel pit
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Flooded gravel pit seen from the hide
Cygnets seen from the hide
We made our way back to the bridleway next to the Leyburn Road. |
On this flooded gravel pit there were a few swans and cygnets and more mallard ducks.
Mute Swan seen from the hide
Cygnet seen from the hide
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Returning from the hide to the path around the reserve next to Leyburn Road
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The path continued next to open grassland on our left
At the end of the path we turned left onto an access road
Access road down to the southern end of the reserve
At this access road we turned left and followed the access road for about 400m down to a car park at the south eastern end of the Marfield Wetland Reserve. At the bottom of the slope we followed the access road round to our left and into the car park. |
We continued our walk around the edge of the reserve. After about 130m the wooded bank on our left came to an end and the bridleway continued along the edge of grassland on our left. After about 300m alongside the grassland we came to another access road off the Leyburn Road.
The path continued next to open grassland on our left
Access road down to the southern end of the reserve
The road turned left to the car park
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We walked through the car park into the reserve
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Path into the reserve from the car park
Path through woodland around the edge of the reserve
Path through woodland around the edge of the reserve
One of the "tough shank" family of fungi?
A few of the greylag geese seen from the bench by the lake
We sat here form some time with a very pleasant view of the lake. A man walking on his own stopped to chat as we sat there. He lived locally and seemed to be describing his own observations when he said that most geese arrived in the spring to breed and the lakes were full of family flotillas of geese and their goslings at that time of year. We continued along the footpath for a few metres from the bench to a kissing gate into some pasture land. |
From the car park we followed a public footpath bearing right up through some woodland around another of the flooded gravel pits. About 300m from the car park we came to a wooden screen with viewing panels to observe the birds on the lake. There had been a sign earlier that called it the "Lakeside Screen". There were mostly greylag geese on this lake and a few mallard ducks. About 150m further on there was a bench with a good view of the Greylag Geese coming and going.
Right hand fork in the path up to some woodland
Path through woodland around the edge of the reserve
"Lakeside Screen" looking out across another flooded gravel pit
Mallard ducks seen from the screen
View across the lake from the bench
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Kissing gate to the field path from the reserve
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Path across the field from the reserve
We turned right through this gateway along the field edge
Through the gate we kept right up the slope
We continued around the edge of the field until we came to a pedestrian gate our of the field at map ref. SE 2187 8253. Through this gate we came to a gravel track that led back into Marfield Wetland down to our left and to our right it led up to the access road where we had parked. We kept to the right and passed round a large steel gate onto the access road. After the steel gate we turned left and walked along the access road. |
Through the gate we continued along the path with the fence on our right and then followed the path around the corner of the field heading to the western corner of the field. At the corner of the field we continued through a gateway and then turned right to walk along the edge of the next field with the hedge/fence on our right.
Groups of greylag geese were flying in and out of the reserve
We followed the field edge round to this gate
We followed the track up to an iron gate
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From the iron gate we turned left along the access road
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Following the access road back to the car park
About 100m beyond this viewpoint we came the car park entrance on our left and the end of our walk. The whole walk had been about 2.7km and it had taken me about two and a half hours to walk it including our stops at the various bird watching sites. |
There were high hedges on both sides of the access road but we came to an open area where we could see the active gravel pit workings on the right of the access road and the Marfield Wetland reserve with the old flooded gravel pits on our left.
Following the access road back to the car park
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On the way to the car park there was the wetland reserve on our left
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On the way back to the car park there were the active gravel pit workings on our right
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Returning to the car park at the end of our walk
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