Yorkshire Wolds Way

Shhhh...the Yorkshire Wolds are a well-kept secret. We'd had quite a few holidays in Yorkshire, usually in the Dales or the North York Moors, and we had driven across the Humber Bridge and north-east from York on the A64, but the delightful wolds landscape of rolling chalk hills and green dry valleys had somehow missed our attention. The association with David Hockney had actually rather put me off, because somehow the image that I'd got from TV programmes about David Hockney and the Wolds was of a landscape that could be approached by road, so not great for walking. We only really walked the Yorkshire Wolds Way because it links the Viking Way and the Cleveland Way, both of which we had already walked. We discovered many beautiful and unspoilt spots; it was a delightful walk.

The Yorshire Wolds Way, formerly known just as the Wolds Way, runs for 79 miles through East and North Yorkshire, from the Humber Bridge to Filey Brigg, to the north of the fishing town and seaside resort of Filey. We had a debate about the reason for the re-naming, wondering whether it was as a result of Lincolnshre getting jealous (the Viking Way passes through the Lincolnshire Wolds, also lovely), Yorkshire wanting to advertise itself, or to avoid confusion with the Cotswold Way, now also a national trail. The final explanation seems the most likely. Wikipedia tells me that "Wold" is derived from the Old English word "Wald", meaning forest, but it has come to mean hilly country, typically underlain by chalk or limestone. Inspection of a geological map of the UK shows that the Yorkshire Wolds and the Lincolnshire Wolds are both underlain by chalk from the Cretaceous period. We also had a debate about how the dry valleys in the chalk were formed: none of the simplistic explanations quite made sense (we are not geologists, but I have studied an OU geology module, and I remain interested). I'm indebted to CF Rich who has given the best and most easily accessible explanation that I've found, on the blog 'Roam the Hills' - click here.

Between Hessle and Filey, the Yorkshire Wolds Way generally avoids towns (though we took the alternative route to buy provisions in Market Weighton) and we occasionally had to walk a mile or two from the path in order to find a B&B or pub in which to stay. From Hessle, the route starts by heading to the west along the Humber Estuary; it then meanders its way to the north, with occasional views to the west over the Vale of York, and finally it heads east, with views over the Vale of Pickering to the north. Some of the dry valleys that the route passes through are wooded, others are just grassy, frequently with sheep grazing, or occasionally with crops growing. We passed through a few villages, many with attractive churches, and the number of deserted villages indicates that the population was relatively large in medieval times.

The 'Wander: Art on the Yorkshire Wolds Way' Project was set up with the aim of building 10 art installations to encourage more people to the path, but only three of the major installations were completed ('Waves and time' in Thixen Dale, 'Enclosure rites', overlooking the Vale of Pickering near Knapton Plantation, and the wood and glass shelter in Fridaythorpe) before the money ran out in 2012. In addition, 10 idiosyncratic benches have been placed at viewpoints along the path, each with poetry by local poet John Wedgewood Clarke. Apparently they are now trying to raise the funds to build two more of the installations, but I'd settle for more of the benches!

Of course the countryside would not be as green as it is without rain, and the weather was a bit mixed when we walked the path in May 2015. The signposting of the route was extremely good, but as usual we were pleased to have a guidebook (the Aurum Guide, "Yorkshire Wolds Way" by Tony Gowers and Roger Ratcliffe) and the OS 1: 25000 maps (Explorer sheets 293, 294, 300 and 301) with us for the added information we were able to glean about the landscape we were passing through. There is a proliferation of long-distance footpaths in the area: our route was briefly coincident with the Trans Pennine Trail, the Beverley 20, the High Hunsley Circuit, the Hudson Way, the Wilberforce Way, the Minster Way, the Chalkland Way, and for quite a long way with the Centenary Way. We booked our own accommodation and stayed in a mixture of B&B's and village Inns, most of which were excellent.

Click here for more photographs of our walk along the Yorkshire Wolds Way.

First day of walk