Sinnington

We took our springtime delights up the lovely River Seven. Rooks cawed from 20 high nests, a grey wagtail posed over the shallows, layers of limestone reflected in the clear waters where plates of the rock form the riverbed.

All this was good, but it gets better.

Three adults, two sheepdogs and six children were about to cross the river at a ford. We moved on upstream and into the woods, taking narrow paths through the flowers up and above the Seven.

The flowers are gorgeous. The slopes of Hob Bank Wood are dominated by wood anemones, though dominated seems inappropriate for such a delicate plant, but they cover acres, sparkling white, the best show of them I've seen and the prettiest sight this year.

Here and there, they are sparked with a violet and there are clusters of pale flower spikes of toothwort, which is a leafless parasite.

There is a sequence of woods along the Seven here. Spring Bank Wood and Coppy Wood hint at a history of coppicing, and that is how it looks, coppiced hazel and above that various standard trees.

The next beneficiary of these ancient woodlands is the garlic, virtually the only plant of the steep slopes of Cropton Bank Woods.

Its flowers are swelling, and if you walk with a party along these smooth single-file paths and you like pungent garlic, stay at the tail of the crocodile to benefit most from the boot-bruised leaves.

Take a little detour to admire a rebuilt footbridge over the river, a good arch of steel with a timber superstructure. Stand on it for a view to the moors.

A family of walkers passed within 100 yards, a family of cyclists rode a nearby ridge, and we took a path wet with a rivulet that locals probably avoid.

It was all so nice here, including the only house painted white, the only farm, a bank of primrose and a bank of daisies.

Upstream about a mile is the village of Cropton. Go there if energetic or thirsty, because it has a brewery. Nevertheless, we turned away from the river, passed industrial scale pheasant farm pens and headed south on Cropton Lane. Sorry about directing you along a road, but it's all right, not that busy and with nice views of Ryedale, and has good verges too.

A hillock allowed traffic watching half a mile away on Wrelton bank, and then it was quiet as we entered a very pleasant shallow valley divided by the hedges of blackthorn flowering white and hawthorn in green leaf, plus a willow or two with large creamy gold male catkins.

The farms here are Coppice Farm, Low Coppice Farm and High Coppice Farm. For history more ancient you cross Double Dike.

Then there was the only ploughed land en route, dry and cracked two inches deep.

The final half mile continued the pleasure, a bench at the Woodland Trust's Roffe Wood, an interesting gable end at The Hall, and Sinnington's greens again. You might find a note on your windscreen, a friendly note reading "Welcome enjoy honesty box for green maintenance". They like you parked on the grass rather than its threads of little roads.

Directions

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

1. Road beside river through green (dead-end sign), 150 yards, first right after school (paths fingerpost), road curves left. Ignore right, becomes track (bridleway sign).

2. Left to riverside path (open access info board), gate into field at bend, 100 yards, right and path to left of hedge, fieldgate to riverside path, ignore left fork after 20 yards.

3. Left to path at four-way junction (fingerpost), stile/fieldgate (waymark), cross field to tree then up bank to new fieldgate on right.

4. Left, gate into wood (waymark), through then edge of wood. Ignore small gate to overgrown path as path begins climb.

5. Right uphill at fieldgate 100 yards away from white house, ignore left fork after 50 yards. After 150 yards left fork to wide path. Fieldgate out of wood, 100 yards, fieldgate.

6. EITHER left for look at new bridge OR right to track uphill.

7. On bend, track on right uphill, becomes sunken, fieldgate, 20 yards, gate, muddy length, gate. At top, gate and right to path, not gate on right, becomes track. Ignore a right turn.

8.Right to road downhill, verge.

9. Road on right after Loand House Court (dead-end sign).

10. Stile on right after Coppice Farm (sign), uphill by hedge, stile (waymark), stile, gateway on right (waymark) and left, 50 yards to stile in valley bottom (waymark), right ten yards, left uphill by hedge.

11. Two stiles in hedged Double Dike, left 50 yards, right before gates, fieldgate by new wood, snickelgate after new wood and right to path. Pass The Hall, left to road downhill by church.

Fact file

Distance: Five miles.

Time: Two or three hours.

General location: North York Moors.

Start: Sinnington.

Right of way: Public and permissive.

Map: Drawn from OS Explorer OL27 North York Moors eastern area.

Date walked: April 2007.

Road route: Signed from A170.

Car parking: On village green, Honesty Box.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: Fox and Hounds.

Tourist and public transport information: Pickering TIC 01751 473791.

Terrain: Riverside and pasture.

Points of interest: The wood immediately north of Roffe Wood is open access.

Difficulty: Easy.

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

Map of the walk>>