Cinquefoil and Fizgig Hills

1. Park in North Grimston, ideally in the small layby next to the phone box. Then walk out of the village along Hogg Lane (B1248) with the phone box on your right. This bit of the road once the footpath runs out is a little bit dicey, so be very careful. You do not have to walk far along this piece of road, so try and time it in between traffic.

2. On the first corner bending right you will see the start of the green track on your left marked by a cattle grid and gate at the side of it, just as the woodland starts and at the sign for Woodhouse and Black Castle.

3. Once you have turned onto the track it is a simple matter of following it all the way up Cinquefoil Hill and enjoying the views as you go. You will pass over a number of other cattle grids but all of them have swing gates at the side of them, so as long as you catch dogs from racing ahead and trying to tackle them alone, you will be OK.

I have wondered about the name Cinquefoil, which is a wild plant with yellow flowers often found in grass verges and hedgerows. The name is French and literally means five-leaved, so I just wondered why this particular hill became to be known by a French name. Is it perhaps due to the fact that Sylvester de Grimston, known as the "Standard-bearer and Chamberlain to William I," supposedly lived here after the Norman (or French) Conquest of England, and as such, he and his descendants named notable landscape features in their native language?

4. You will come to a sign for the Wolds way pointing right and ahead, but just keep on the roadway straight ahead up to the trees at Rabbit Slack on your left, which when we were there had suffered from some land slippage.

11. Continue on the stony path until you come to a three-way signpost. The Wolds Way continues straight ahead but you need to turn left here to follow the public footpath along the grassy path down the edge of the field with the grassy bank separating the fields on your left. 

12. Walk to the end of this field where the path goes through the middle of some trees straight ahead and there is a swing gate at the end with a yellow way marker pointing straight ahead.

13.  Go through the gate and follow the grass path downhill (you may see sheep ahead so keep dogs on a lead). Part way down you will come across a wooden signpost which points up the way you have come and left. I would ignore this as you are heading for the gate in the bottom left-hand-side of this field. You are now walking on Fizgig Hill.

14. Continue following the path as it sweeps down left towards the open gate in the corner - which when we visited was in the middle of a great big muddy bog!

18. Pass the pond on your left and go through the swing gate keeping the farm buildings on your left. The grassy path goes slightly uphill and then you will come to the tarmac farm road at Low Bellmanear, where you turn right.  

19. Follow the farm road all the way along over another couple of cattle grids - at each one you are able to walk around the side and more signage about nesting ground birds. The road bends to the right and goes past a huge pile of logs and then left and slightly right until you come to the road into Settrington.

20. Turn left at the road and follow it into the village where you will see Settrington House on your right and the lake on your left. 

Historically Settrington was a bigger village than it is now. It was owned in the 16th century by Lady Margaret Douglas, who was half-sister of King James V of Scotland, Countess of Lennox, and the mother of Lord Henry Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots. Later Settrington was owned by Queen Elizabeth I, who sent an official to Settrington to survey the village towards the end of her reign.

26. Carry on along the path keeping the hedge on your right. You will come to a stile, where you can also lift the fence panel off a bracket to get through (or you can go over the stile of course).

27. The path runs through a small thicket and come to another stile at the end which is next to a swing gate, which you can use to go through into the next field. There is a sign here that says beware of the bull, cows and calves, so I put Bill on a lead.  

28. Walk across this field towards the farm buildings at the end of it. Keep the wire fence on your right and you will come to a stile, but just a bit further to your right is a metal gate, which is the permissive path through.

29. Straight after the gate turn left (walk past the stile) and you will come to Bellmanean Farm Road where you turn right. 

30. Here a yellow waymarker points your way right down the edge of a field with a wire fence on your left. You are also asked to keep dogs on a lead. Part way down this path there is a stile that takes you over the wire fence to the public footpath (where you continue with the wire fence now on your right). However, you can continue along the permissive path to the end where there is a gate, which you go through.

31. Go through the second metal gate and into the field, walking straight ahead back towards North Grimston. 

32. You will pass a disused estate building and then the edge of North Grimston House and the ha-ha that borders the grounds to your right. This comes out at the road in North Grimston where straight ahead is your starting point!