Gilling East is a place I've never started from before. There hadn't seemed a good circuit from the village, but I have just discovered a permissive path that makes for a nice and easy walk.

The first couple of miles are beside Holbeck, a stream that runs along the north edge of a most distinctive valley, a space almost rectangular in shape, about two miles in length and half a mile wide, and incredibly flat and open, with plenty of stubble and autumn-sown crops. There's room here for an airport.

It was quiet - bar the baas of the sheep, one of which had just lambed, a messy business. The path was clean, the beck was clear to every pebble, eddying under the roots of alder and willow. Willows split, splayed and arched to re-grow one bank to the next, ash turning green from chocolate buds. Highland cattle watching, their sharp horns lifted, safe on the far side of the water.

One sign had read 'Ampleforth 2 miles, Howardian Hills Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty' and soon the famous catholic college was visible, a village-sized accumulation of buildings high up on the valley side, sporting a St George's Flag, which incidentally has, along with the mini skirt, just been listed as one of the '21 Icons of Britain'. Another sign read 'Wildlife Corridor... herons, kingfishers and white clawed crayfish'.

Mid-afternoon and the sun came out, allowing for shirtsleeves at last this year - mini skirts being rare in this job - and we sashayed round a corner and here, fifty paces off route, three waters meet in a complex of flows and island.

Now facing us is the other flank of the valley, at first a rise of conifers, but we continued on the level and soon reached a big old bossy sign that effectively proclaimed 'wildlife sanctuary but keep out'. However, in a sign of the times, there's a new fingerpost fastened to it, and just the other side a lovely lake.

In size it's too big to be a pond, is fringed with bulrush and the surface was arrowed with the swim of waterfowl and the air ricocheted with the rata-tat-tat of a woodpecker, but what caught the fancy was a monster from the deeps that rose and rose with a lazy back breaching and gulps of a huge mouth, no trout this.

Now the route gets lazier still, with dead-end track and Tarmac past bluebell woods. The conifers give way to older trees; horse chestnut leaves broke from sticky buds. The understorey is of garlic, wood anemone and dogs mercury, and that means that these banks have a long wooded history.

Just before we got back into Gilling, below the castle there, we thought to have a look at some ancient fishponds in a wood. They were nigh invisible, but to get there we had to cross three railway lines. They were of gauges, 3 , 5 and 7 inches, an acreage of work by the Ryedale Society of Model Engineers, the 'best in the country'. You can ride their steam trains some Sunday afternoons and get a cup of tea, check their website.

directions

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

Through village on pavement in Helmsley direction, bridge on left after bungalows (fingerpost) to drive then track then fieldgate, 25 yards.

Fieldgate on right and immediately left 25 yards then angle right on grassy track (old waymarked post) and keep by beck to your right for next two miles, stile, cross private road, stile, fieldgate to stretch of track at access sign then rejoin beckside.

At access sign and where path curves left by wood, 50 yards (fingerpost Yearsley and Gilling East), stay by field and beck edge.

At large sign with adjacent fingerpost 100 yards and up bank to lake. Return to signs, take track east. Becomes dead-end road at houses.

fact file

Distance: Four miles.

Time: Two hours.

General location: Howardian Hills.

Start: Gilling East.

Right of way: Public, and Permissive Path.

Map: Drawn from OS Explorer 300 Howardian Hills and Malton.

Dogs: Legal, but note there were lambing sheep.

Date walked: Fri April 21, 2006.

Road route: From York via Stillington and Brandsby.

Car parking: Roadside.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: The Fairfax Arms.

Tourist & public transport information: Helmsley TIC 01439 770173.

Terrain: Valley floor.

Points of interest: Easy for children.

Difficulty: Simple and 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.

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 10:29 Saturday, April 29, 2006