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Leavening Brow
Start / End: Car park at Leavening conservation area
Distance: 4.16 miles
Time: 2 hours
Map: OS 300
A lovely walk with some very quiet on road walking (mainly uphill) which made it a lot easier and great views from Leavening Brow itself.
Our Walk
Start From: YO17 9SG ///incurring.writings.marathons
1. Park up in the car park on Leavening Brow next to the picnic site and conservation area. It has two square wooden arches of poles at the entrance. Walk out of the entrance and across the road.
2. Opposite the road to Pocklington and just past the signpost there is a public footpath sign and a gate off to your right. Note that the Pocklington road is actually a Roman one. Go through the gate.
3. Head down the slope on the path and you will come to where the path splits and there is a gate on your right - this is where you will come back to, opposite the green container.
4. Continue following the path down the slope as you are going to be doing the walk in a clockwise direction, although to mix it up you could go the opposite way!
5. It is very easy to follow this path all the way downhill, enjoying the views as you head past Fox Covert Plantation on your right and Castlesides Plantation on your left. This was the muddiest stretch of the whole walk, and not too bad considering.
6. As the path opens up you will slightly bend right and then left to cross over a stream where Bill, of course, has a little paddle. Just keep walking with the stream on your left as you walk onto The Nab.
7. At the end of this stretch you will see another path bending up right, do not take this one unless you want a little there and back detour, as it heads up Mount Ferrant to the remains of an ancient motte and bailey castle, which overlooks the Roman road to Malton and which will have been a strategically important routeway in the medieval period.
The construction of the motte and bailey castle is attributed to Nigel Fossard, who was an Anglo-Norman nobleman who was considered the feudal baron of Mulgrave and held lands of Robert, Count of Mortain, in the Domesday survey of 1086. There is documentary evidence that the castle was constructed largely of wood and was dismantled under Nigel's great grandson, Lord William Fossard II, who, while a ward of the count of Aumale, seduced the count's sister and was forced to flee. Accounts says that King Henry II ordered the destruction of the castle as punishment in 1150, granting the timbers to monks to build the newly founded abbey of Meaux.
8. Ignoring the path right to the castle (or when you've finished exploring there), carry on straight ahead as you will see the village of Burythorpe just ahead. Pass through a farm and if it's wet over a couple of slabs acting as a ford for the stream.
8. The path comes out on the road, at which point you turn right and head into Burythorpe.
9. The Bay Horse Inn, in the village has recently reopened. I have not been in yet and I am not sure if it is dog-friendly - so if you pop in and it's nice - please let me know. Or walk past the pub, past the village hall, and at the next road junction turn right.
10. This is quite a long on-road section here, but it is very quiet (I don't remember meeting a car at all on here), and uphill. Walk out of the village and continue up hill. You will go past signage to The Hermitage on your left - this is another footpath that we might try on another day.
11. The road bends to the right at some woods, where it levels off for a while and then left again at a large tree stump, heading slightly downhill on a section of the road lined by trees on the right and great views over the fields and landscape beyond.
12. At the end of this section of road it bends right again, and there is a no entry to dog walkers sign on your left at Lang Hill and Crow Woods. Keep walking along the road for a shortish distance until you come to a dead-end road branching off to your right, just as the road bends left again towards Birdsall. There is no footpath sign here as far as I could see, but take the dead-end road towards Mount Ferrant Farm.
13. Walk along this road to the farm at the end of it. The path bends down left to walk amongst some farm buildings (the path swinging right is no entry) and I kept Bill on a lead for this stretch.
14. Walk through these buildings as the path swings left, then right up the track lined by hedges either side.
15. Just before the next set of farm buildings look for a gate on your left in the hedge, with a blue on yellow way marker sign. Go through the gate and head right towards the back of the barn and another wooden swing gate.
16. Go through this next gate into the field ahead - note I was not sure about livestock here, so again just until I could see it was clear I kept Bill on a lead. Walk straight ahead to the next fence and go through the gate with the blue way-marker on it. There has been reports of livestock in this and the next fields you come to so just be careful.
17. In the next field you are heading for the top left-hand corner where there is an open five bar gate so keep the fence on your left and keep getting closer to it as you head across this field, which was somewhat bumpy and marshy.
18. Once through the open five-bar gate you are onto Leavening Brow. Head straight across this next field past a forked stump of a tree, and you will find a fence line coming in from the right and then going straight ahead, which you continue to walk along the side of, keeping it to your right. Essentially if you just keep walking along the side of the hill you can't go far wrong and there are lovely views off to your right.
19. At the next fence line that cuts across in front of you, go through the gap at the blue way marker.
20. You will see ahead a sort of gully that appears to have a track going through the middle of it, but you want to head around this to the right, keeping the trees on your left and downhill views on your right.
21. Follow the path around and ahead you will eventually spot the green container we saw when we started. Keep along the path here and you will come to a gate (with a blue way-marker) which is the one we passed earlier. Go through, turn left up hill and head back up to where you started.
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