GEORGE WILKINSON heads for wonderful Wintringham

This is a very nice Wolds wander from Wintringham. The village, off the beaten track, is a long line of houses, some of chalk.

I turned south-ish from its western end and straight away gave three silent cheers.

One for the waymarking, brilliant all day, one for the landscape, and one for a lovely spring-fed site of special scientific interest which was blue with willow herb.

I read a sign explaining the exacting eco requirements of Wintringham's Millennium Pond Project and happily set off. Hard dry heads of wheat brushed my rucksack.

A heron cruised as a few clouds cooled. Butterflies fluttered thistle to thistle and flat fields stretched to low horizons but south, a mile away, the Wolds rise sharply. I turned that way at noon, on reaching a dead quiet Thorpe Bassett.

At the hamlet's Milbank House, a lime, a conker and a turkey oak shade a stone culvert and set their seed and nuts. I'd hit a harvest lull. You continue between a huge multi-crop field and a stream. The stream is well overgrown with willow and more. Unlike on the Pathfinder Map, you don't have to cross it to a farm, so the route's now simplified and nicely less intrusive.

Up front, Bassett Brow, with its flow of woods, is nearing. You reach damp pasture, one last cultivated field, the last spring, and climb steeply for ten minutes to the woods.

Once up, you'll find Many Thorns Farm. Someone had a hard time here, now it's a broken remnant of chalk walls.

Sad thoughts are banished, after a minute's descent through a wood, by today's glorious view over the crop hued curves and shapes that eventually lift to the North York Moors. It's a view enhanced by the prospect of a sustained, tasty and open-angled descent across a slope which is more for rabbits than sheep.

The best length of the walk. Once down, to a field's distance from a fine looking farm, we switch onto a straight, no-traffic and weathered Tarmac track return, with an open 'green lane' feel. The line of Wintringham appears.

I have to mention the isolated and industrial malting plant that is central, two miles away at Knapton Station, but can't complain because I occasionally have a pint.

DIRECTIONS

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

1. From church, through village, track on left opposite Thorndale Farm (signed Wolds Way, Wharram-le-Street), footbridge, fieldgate, fieldgate, path 1 o'clock across field, small gateway and 1 o'clock (hedge on right).

2. Right at Tarmac track, ten yards, left on fieldedge path (hedge to right), gate on right and switch to other side of hedge, gate/fieldgate, fieldgate to track, 100 yards, footbridge by pond/stream. Ignore waymark to right, fieldgate, ten yards, left to road, left fork before Old School House (dead-end sign).

3. Pass entrance to Milbank House, right-hand bend, about 100 yards, path on right at end of Tarmac end (metal sign). Warning: path overgrown for 30 yards, watch out for concealed tiny footbridge 20 paces from road, then ten yards, left to fieldedge.Keep overgrown beck to left (stay in field).

4. Stile/fieldgate, 1 o'clock across pasture for 100 yards, stile and left, round two corners of field to broken stile at third corner, left to pasture, 100 yards, stile, 1 o'clock and climb for 200 yards to corner of wood, climb steeply (wood to right). Gate (DIY waymark), one o'clock, 150 yards, broken stile, 20 yards, left to track, 100 yards.

5. Many Thorns Farm (ruin), track passes below it into wood, downhill. Fork left 10 yards to edge of wood, fieldgate, 1 o'clock downhill, 'track' changes to faint path and contour. Descend to one field above farm. Gate, contour above one more field.

6. Left to track (fingerpost Wolds Way and Centenary Way), fieldgate, join wider Tarmac track, retrace steps from No. 2.

FACT FILE

Distance: Nearly six miles.

Time: Three hours.

Start: Wintringham.

Right of way: The complete route is along public rights of way.

Date walked: Friday, August 8.

Road route: Wintringham is one mile south of the A64 Malton/Scarborough road, a mile or so from Rillington.

Parking: Small car park opposite church, otherwise roadside.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: Only at Rillington.

Tourist & public transport info: Malton TIC 01653 600048

Map: Based on OS Pathfinder 644 Rillington & Sherburn.

Terrain: Flat, one short sharp climb.

Footwear: Walking boots.

Points of interest: Wolds flowers, butterflies, springs, views and farmland.

Difficulty: Moderate. Dogs: Suitable for dogs on leads or under close control.

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.

There is no map available at present