Country Walk: Terrington, Howardian Hills (From York Press)

Country Walk: Terrington, Howardian Hills

2:15pm Saturday 18th July 2009 in Search By George Wilkinson

Terrington is a nice village, small and semi-sleepy, so please park out of the way at the village hall.

We were dozy. Sun sapped the little energy required for this walk. We retired to the Back o’the Shop Gallery for the cool of yellow parasols, tea and teacake and a look at the current exhibition of photographs.

Howard Wallis is the local with the camera and shows a variety of strong North Yorkshire images. Some are close-ups, the grain of wood, a rain drop on a leaf. A shot of a Kettleness sunrise is extraordinary for the bronze colour of the shore rocks. Of his Summer Fields Near Bulmer he suggests that “grass waving in the breeze and cows grazing in the distance” is the “essence of the Howardian Hills”. Because I was just about to step out on to said hills, I just wished that there was more focus on them.

Bulmer is a couple of miles away, our experience was, in terms of vegetation, sometimes similar to the photographer’s, but our first fields were sports fields, pristine terraces of them at Terrington Hall Preparatory School, overlooking miles of enticing undulations.

We batted on, betwixt peaking wheat and barley, and rape invaded by a pretty froth of mayweed, on a summer delight, skirting the rising land and into a most valuable damp zone named Hollin Hills Bogs.

Here there are gorgeous acres of tall grasses and reeds and also another and notorious invader, the Himalayan balsam, sometimes known as the policeman’s helmet. I had to laugh when I read its crime sheet in a recent North York Moors National Park Publication: “the pink menace” wanted for “crimes against river banks”, accused of “luring bumblebees away from hardworking local flowers with cheap perfume and trashy pink flowers”. Talking of which, Maud of Terrington was a notorious nun.

My hardworking local flower applied insect repellent and bashed some balsam with her trekking pole. Of nice insects, there were very many small brown butterflies with white fringes.

Some rock is exposed as small terracing outcrops that fracture into letter box or bookend-sized lumps. A farm building emitted the squeal of pigs.

Hares were teaching their leverets about people and speed, and two knowing foxes saw us and one went one way, the other the opposite, to confuse. But the signs kept us on track, with Terrington 2 miles then Terrington 1¾.

We had a sandwich and chatted to two walkers who had done 16 miles and who were homing in on a pint at Hovingham, whereas our route choice was more for comfort and we started a track back on a mixture of the Ebor Way and the Wolds Way.

At the top of Huskit Hill there’s an overview of the fields we had walked and the rich dark woods we’d touched with Terrington mid-distance and centre stage. And here the rooks have their command post in a standalone ash, a tree they turn into a sound box to broadcast to the valley. Earlier we’d seen two of their comrades hung up with blue twine to desiccate and deter.

Down in the sump of the valley, the long grasses thrived again, shoulder high to the ponies that grazed in them. Dozens of swallows flitted from the hedgerows and we came back in over what was once Church Field.

Directions

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. From Village Hall, left to Mowthorpe Lane, pass Church Square, cross road to Church Lane (fingerpost Centenary Way).

2. From bend, take grassy path (fingerpost Ebor Way), 100 yards, gate/gap, 50 yards, between and over sports fields (two-way fingerpost Mowthorpe Farm). Steps down (waymark), cross field.

3. Gate and join track, over hill.

4. Gate in fieldgate and 11 o’ clock down across field, gate and footbridge (waymark), streamside path.

5. Footbridge and gate on right over stream and immediately left.

6. Stile by fieldgate and one o’clock up towards farm, cross fieldedge track to fieldgate, uphill by fence to your left (dislodged three-way waymarked post).

7. Usage route to avoid farmyard is second fieldgate to the left of the barn and immediately right beside farmyard. Follow telegraph poles downhill, halfway down join track.

8. Near fieldgate on left by stream (three-way fingerpost Terrington 2 miles) turn right on track, 50 yards, fieldgate (waymark).

9. Right to main track (three-way fingerpost Terrington 1¾ miles). Through farmyard and left (waymark post by garden wall). Ignore left fork at crest of hill (three-way fingerpost). Downhill.

10. Opposite fieldgate and nearby wood corner on left, through hedge gap on right (look out for overgrown two-way fingerpost Terrington 1 mile), downhill with hedge/fence to right 150 yards, snickelgate on right (waymark), left downhill under trees by fence 150 yards, snickelgate (waymark), 50 yards. Footbridge on right before birch trees (waymark), immediately left, 50 yards, metal fieldgate on right (no waymark), the usage route bypasses this bridge.

11. Uphill by fence and hedge to your right, contour on fieldedge path/track, fieldgate. Around corner to steps up to playing field, by wall. Rejoin outward route.

Fact file

Distance: Four miles.

General location: Howardian Hills.

Start: Terrington.

Right of way: Public.

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: July 2009.

Road route: From York via Sheriff Hutton.

Car parking: Village hall.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: Inn and café at Terrington.

Tourist and public transport information: Malton TIC 01653 600048.

Map: Drawn from OS Explorer 300 Howardian Hills.

Terrain: Rolling hills.

Difficulty: Comfortable.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.