Howardian Hills National Landscape — Attraction in Great Britain

We went back to a river walk, and chose a local river walk- The Derwent. Pete and I got the No 6 bus to get us to Stamford Bridge. Mike was missing as he was in Scotland doing Corbetts.

We had an early start at 8.45 àm, and walking past the old Cornmill now luxury apartments and were soon on the track running alongside the river in beautiful sunny and warm weather with not a cloud in the sky.

But straightaway we were into a terrible overgrown path with the invasive Himalayan Balsam and stinging nettles everywhere. They had grown over the path and obstructing our progress with every step. Unfortunately we had the Himalayan Balsam and nettles for all of the route today with very little let up. In fact the Himalayan Balsam was up to 5 foot high covering the path and you had to literally fight your way through it.

I certainly learned a lesson today not to walk in shorts as I was stung with stinging nettles all along the route whereas Pete in tracksters had no problem.

It was hard going the 3 miles to Buttercrambe and then onto the lovely village of Scrayingham. While walking through the village we stopped at a large house which had an array of wedding cars and who were in the process of getting two of their cars ready for a wedding in York.

They then told us that there were two routes from here to Howsham- the river route and the Coffin Route. The path is so called as it was used to convey coffins from Howsham which had no church to Scrayingham in years past.

I opted for this route as we had just walked past a defliberator in the phone box near the river route, so I thought the Coffin Route was better and the safer option.But we found it was also overgrown and difficult to walk at a fast pace??.

But we walked past Howsham without calling in, but were blessed with the sight of a twin Archimedes Screw turbines for Howsham Mill. They were quite noisy as it was generating electricity by the gravitational energy of the water falling over the weir which then turned the fully restored waterwheel in the mill. The electricity is fed into the Grid.

I carried on at a slower pace than Pete as I found it hard going on the awkward paths, and we walked past Kirkham Abbey standing out in brilliant sunshine. We then had a couple of miles on the road, and eventually after 9 hours of walking reached Malton and called in for a very nice cold and enjoyable pint of Sessions IPA at Brass Castle Brewery Tap Room.

Our 16.4 miles took us 9 hours 15 minutes. In fact our last 6 miles to Malton over 3 hours.

One of the hardest river walks I have done due to undergrowth. But Pete could have easily knocked off at least...

The review widget says that I last visited two years ago, but I was there again this evening. The countryside is so beautiful, dotted with villages and hamlets of all sizes. You can find pubs serving real locally brewed beers, plus shops and cafés selling local produce of all kinds. I drove through in the misty darkness tonight and loved every minute of the journey. The views in the daytime are unparalleled, looking south over the Vale of York or east towards Filey, Bridlington...

This is a large AONB stretching from just south of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park in between the A19 and crossing over the A64 to its boundary North of York.

It features a mainly rural landscape with pretty villages and rolling hills which are excellent for walking and nature. History also features with places such as Byland Abbey and Nunnington Hall being a couple of the more famous places but the gemstone is Castle Howard, still occupied by the Howards, which...