GEORGE WILKINSON took this walk before the foot and mouth outbreak prompted a call for people to stay out of the countryside. Walkers should save this for when the crisis is over.
MID February was turnout the best winter walking for ages so I thought I would do the sort of circuit normally reserved for the spring, a nature trail rather than hill tops and grand views, and see what wildlife was up and about in a variety of environments. Today, a couple of miles north west of Masham, we have riverside, pastures and a wood, plus ice cream for a sunny day, and I only had to endure a couple of boggy bits.
High Ellington is a pleasant little village with a green. A sunken track leads to its lesser companion Low Ellington that has a rougher green. Then we take tracks and field boundaries.
Where pasture has been ploughed there is an embarrassment of round rocks. The wildlife was out in exuberant activity, rabbits scampered, a flock of fieldfares drifted out of an oak tree, hedges were seething with busy brown spiders and, most spectacular, a hundred or so lapwings circled round and round catching the sunlight as they turned. All this in the first mile.
From a hillock with ponds and lime kiln we get first sight of the River Ure, deep in its banks, wide and clear. But 20 feet above the water level the debris of grass and straw snagged in branches reminded me of recent dramatic floods. Our half-mile by the water is the only accessible stretch hereabouts. Three oystercatchers zipped over a glassy pool. Rabbit and mole activity nicely shows how the soil changes from rich and dark to sandy to pale brown over the contours.
After the river we climb a little, catch a glimpse of the mouth of Wensleydale and follow a stream. There are springs and ponds everywhere. In traditional rural fashion two springs are used as rubble dumps. A pair of short-eared owls lifted off from a tree stump.
At the main road sharp-eyed ice cream addicts will notice that their Mecca is but a third of a mile down the Tarmac. Not wishing to be run down for my refreshments I got my Brymor strawberry corner after a cross-country detour. The cows are pampered, the ice cream delicious, but this drive-to-slurp in a cross between an agri-shed and a conservatory is a strange phenomenon.
The calories powered me back on course and into North Wood, where there is a pond then stream, springs and track. A freshly dead deer might be high in a week, leave things a bit longer and the bluebells will be out. Heaps of grain signalled pheasants and then came the paraphernalia of their mass production, including a wire pen across the path. Bar a few survivors, last season's production of pheasants are dead, but there was a lot of activity among the smaller birds, including I think marsh tits. All went quiet when a big raptor was harried across the sky by two crows.
Ten minutes later I was finished, rather pleased with the walk, though note this is obviously a rarely done circuit, one can tell by the paucity of waymarks and the gates that have to be clambered over.
Directions
When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.
1. From High Ellington phone box, through village towards A6108, left at T-junction, 100 yards, hedged track on left between house and barn/chapel. Right to main road (verge), first left to Low Ellington.
2. Keep straight on through Low Ellington, Tarmac changes to track by farm, swings right by fence after farmyard, left-hand bend, 100 yards, *dog-leg to right of fence/old hedge to track uphill (tree at crest), downhill, 100 yards, gateway, keep by hedge to your left then change sides when near pond/spring/wooded area (from * the public right of way is on the left of the boundary and not much margin and it's used for rocks from field but please use if marked up and ok).
3. Stile and left into pasture with lime kiln, 100 yards, one o'clock across field to River Ure.
4. Gate (barbed wire in front) and left to riverside path.
5. Stile into pasture (about 200 yards after passing small wood to your left), faint path, at second line of old hedgerow trees turn left up bank, grassy path to house.
6. Stile and right to track.
7. Left to road, 50 yards, red metal gate on left and immediately right. Gates.
8. Stile/fieldgate into farmyard, right, fieldgate out of farmyard, right to track, 150 yards, left across field on faint grassy path, left at fence (trees), 100 yards (stream on left), fieldgate, fieldgate and curve right by five trees up to fieldgate and main road.
9. Right to main road, 50 yards, fieldgate on left by edge of wood, 20 yards, right.
10. Near gate, detour right downhill (with a hedge to your left) for ice cream. Otherwise, straight on after gate for 50 yards, left uphill by wire fence, metal fieldgate* on left (*fieldgate further up if too boggy) and cross bottom of little valley - copse on left of hillside, small gate into wood.
11. Path through wood (to left of pond), turns to watery track through wood which eventually follows outside edge.
12. Fieldgate on right at left-hand bend as track swings back into wood, ten o'clock for 100 yards, fieldgate, cross field (not reinstated February 17) then right uphill on margin with hedge to your left.
13. Left to track, ignore right fork, return to High Ellington.
Fact file
Distance: Five and a half miles.
Time: Three hours.
General Location: Eastern edge of the Dales near Masham.
Start: High Ellington (village).
Right of Way: The complete route is along public rights of way.
Date walked: Saturday, February 17, 2001.
Road Route: Two miles from Masham on the A6108 to Leyburn.
Car Parking: Verge in High Ellington and Low Ellington.
Lavatories: None.
Refreshments: Masham.
Tourist & Public Transport Information: Harrogate TIC 01423 537300.
Map: Based on OS Explorer 302 Northallerton and Thirsk.
Terrain: Low hills.
Points of interest: Varied wildlife, River Ure. Masham market days Wednesday and Saturday.
Difficulty: Moderate, but some fieldgates wouldn't open.
Dogs: Suitable.
Weather Forecast: Evening Press and recorded forecast 0891 500 418.
Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.
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