Temple tour

ESCRICK is nice and convenient for a Bank Holiday outing from York or Selby, a quick nip along the A19. And we enjoyed ourselves on this toddle to a temple.

First though the village. Whenever stuck for a comment, I tend to turn to the late and great Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (or rather here his replacement David Neave) and his encyclopaedic The Buildings Of England - "Despite being swamped by what was termed 'expensive and pretentious suburban housing' in the first edition of this volume, the settlement retains something of the character of an estate village."

Certainly our walk had that character. Rabbits ran on the village green, and we disturbed the ducks from their morning doze and they waddled into the pond that was made by the estate in 1996 and is ace, with a Monet style bridge and a good selection of strong tall reeds and rushes.

From here we pierced a ring of new houses and entered Gas House Wood and its permissive paths. Boots crunched gravel and acorns, conkers soon. There are beech, big oaks, and giant redwoods, and, best of all, ponds, a pond round every twist in the path, reeds and purple plumed rushes galore. The water was heat-wave warmed and simmered with insects. A man was strimming, poor frogs.

Then we went near the big house, which has a long history of modification and has now settled as a three-storey block with wings and is a girls' school. It's surrounded by parkland, fields, woods, horses, a cricket pitch and the paraphernalia of sports including archery targets near the track. Don't imagine Amazons or Cupid's dart, more Agincourt in Escrick.

We headed for the temple, straight down a track, a mile under the sun. The Temple Walk is between potato fields which was a bit disappointing but they were prettied by bee-friendly blue borage.

The temple is modest and pleasant with four columns, a domed roof and a welcome shady bench. It was recently restored with DEFRA money. Behind, and just opening, were huge yellow heads of sunflowers, fields of them, running with hares.

Rested, we walked back along a parallel track with the main view of the hall and then took some different paths through Gas House Wood. These woods are interesting, the canopy is not very dense so there is thick undergrowth and notably two of the most notorious invasive and hard to eradicate alien plants, the Japanese knotweed and the Himalayan balsam, the latter flowering purple and readying its explosive seed pods.

At the Black Bull the liquid refreshment was welcome though the food unexciting. Otherwise we'd had our money's worth.

Directions:

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

1. From Carr Lane, Carr Meadow road, village green to left. Tarmac path on left before No. 15, gravel path through wood.

2. Right to private road. Track on left after field, swings right.

3. Left at T-junction by timber building, fieldgate, 100 yards.

4. Right, 100 yards, left at junction, to Temple. Left and back to wood.

Route option in wood, fork to path on right, bridge, path near wood edge, left at wood corner, exit wood where you first entered.

Fact file:

Distance: Three miles.

Time: Two hours.

General location: Between York and Selby.

Start: Village green.

Right of Way: Permissive access paths.

Date walked: Friday August 8, 2003.

Road Route: Escrick is five miles south of York and five miles north of Selby, on the A19.

Car parking: Roadside.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: The Black Bull at Escrick.

Tourist & Public Transport Information: From 22 September 2003, Selby Visitor Information Centre 01757 212181, till then 01757 292323.

Map: Based on OS Explorer 290 York, Selby and Tadcaster, and a map supplied by Escrick Park Estate.

Terrain: Flat parkland, farmland and woods.

Points of interest: The 'Walkers Welcome' scheme.

Difficulty: Easy. All the route except the return path option through Gas House Wood seems suitable for wheelchairs.

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.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 09:08 Saturday, August 16, 2003