Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Start / End: Kirby Grindalythe
Distance: 5.37 miles
Time: 2.5 hours
Map: OS 300
This was a bit tricky and we did go wrong a few times due to changes in some of the footpaths, but if you follow our instructions and OS map you should be able to enjoy this great walk. Plus we are working on improving the waymarking!
1. Park in Kirby Grindalythe near to the phone box and along the other side of the road to the Gypsey Race, being careful not to block anyone's access.
Here you will also find some very nice interpretation boards which detail some of the history of the village and surrounding area.
For example, and to start you off, around Kirby Grindalythe you will find Bronze-Age round barrows and Iron-Age square barrows on the higher ground. More settlement happened in the Viking period when areas around the Gypsey Race stream became settled, and in the Domesday Book it is recorded as Chirchebi.
2. Walk along to the dead-end and on your left, you will spot a public footpath sign. Go up the small muddy slope and out onto the private grass at the top, where you walk straight across keeping dogs on leads.
3. At the other side of the grass you will come to a wooden fence where you turn right onto the path beyond it.
4. Follow the path through the trees, until you come out the other side, where the path is edged by hedges either side for a distance.
5. Keep to the path and after you have walked one mile along it curves around to the right where you will find a wooden bench if you want to take a breather. You can just make out that this bench is 'Toby's Bench’.
6. Keep following the sometimes-muddy path to the next corner, which is currently where it got a bit tricky. (we are hoping that the signage can be improved)
The way-markers on the post in the hedge suggest that you come off the main muddy path and head in a diagonal direction straight across the field where there is no path and it has been planted by the farmer. Note, do not make our mistake and turn right at the way-marker and then go straight on, as although this brings you to a gate and then a gorgeous valley which heads down to Crowtree Slack, this is also wrong.
7. Instead I suggest that you continue on the muddy track as it bends to the left. Walk up as far as the next farm buildings and trees at Top Barn and just before these buildings turn off right, keeping the trees on your left, where there is a wide grassy path down the centre of two fields as at the top of this path is a wooden kissing gate where you can pick up the yellow way-markers.
8. Go through the wooden kissing gate and continue straight ahead with a post and wire fence on your left.
9. At the next wooden kissing gate, there is another way-marker which says to walk diagonally over this field, again there is no footpath and the field has been planted. Instead, turn right after the gate and walk to the corner of the field.
10. At the corner turn left and follow the field edge all the way along. At the top of this stretch you will come to the road.
11. Once at the road turn right and walk along for a short while until you get to a farm road where you will find a public bridleway sign pointing right.
12. Follow the public bridleway as it winds round a left-hand bend, then right, then left, then right again (and past a silo) and makes its way down to Low Mowthorpe Farm at the bottom.
13. Here's your third bit of trickiness! Do not walk into the farm itself instead head across a slab of concrete and some land that allows you to walk between two 'run-off ponds' down towards the Gypsey Race stream. At the stream turn left.
14. There is no signage here, but it is a footpath which just follows the Gypsey Race along. If you keep the stream on your right all the way to the road you will be fine!
At the end of this stretch where the Gypsey Race crosses under the road are the remains of the Medieval Village of Mowthope. Have a look, particularly over the other side of the road, at all the lumps and bumps denoting this ancient settlement.
Mowthorpe is first mentioned in the Domesday book. The various lumps and bumps that are still visible are turf covered building foundations, field walls and banks, lynchets, mounds, hollows and trackways which spread along both sides of the Gypsey Race. The main concentration of foundations was still relatively well preserved in 1974. The village here is thought to have been abandoned, at least partially, due to the Black Death in the mid-14th-century.
15. After you have perused the deserted village and marvelled at how clear the stream is, turn right and walk up to the top of this road. At the T junction turn right and take the road all the way back to Kirby Grindalythe.
16. Just past Low Mowthorpe Cottages on your right there are some more remains of the deserted settlement of Mowthorpe on the right-hand side of the road on just the other side of the Gypsey Race stream.
17. As you enter Kirby Grindalythe St Andrew's church is on your right, where we spotted some extremely friendly sheep, and just after this take the road on your right back up to where you started.
If you have time walk a bit further up the dead-end and visit the church which has a tower which might be late Anglo-Saxon incorporating pieces of 9th-11th century stone crosses. The church was restored and a new nave built in 1872-5 for Sir Tatton Sykes and you can easily spot this restoration within the brick work.
Copyright © 2024 walkingthewolds.co.uk - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy