Nunburnholme Trig

A little history to get you started: 

Nunburnholme dates from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. Bronze-age burial mounds and an Iron-age cemetery have also been found here. Foundations and artefacts from a Roman villa or farmstead were discovered near to the site of the nunnery which was founded in the 12th century as the Benedictine Priory of St Mary. The Priory was dissolved under the rule of Henry VIII in 1536 and the buildings fell into disrepair. You can still see the remains of the medieval fishponds and the site of the Priory is marked on maps near Manor Farm. This is all that remains of the original manor house, which was once owned by the 5th Duke of Devonshire and afterwards George Hudson (the 'Railway King'). After Hudson went bankrupt, the estate went into the hands of Albert Lord Denison the first Baron of Londesborough, and later it was bought by Charles Wilson, shipping magnate and MP. He renamed the manor house Warter Priory, had Nunburnholme Railway built and made many other improvements to the village. Succeeding him was Lady Nunburnholme, who effected the village in other ways, most notably she had the Devonshire Arms Pub closed down and often used to invite herself into homes of the estate workers to check on how they were living.

6. At the end of this stretch you go through a metal kissing gate, that has quite wide access and there are signs about farm livestock as well as the Wolds Way acorn way-marker. Go through the gate but have dogs on leads.

7. Follow the path along the edge of the field, with the hedge on your right and an electric wire fence on your left. There are some lovely views over to your left. You will come up to Thorns Wood on your right and possibly also some cows at some point, which were a bit over friendly when we were there - there is a wire electric fence to keep them in, but Bill and I did not hang about and went through the metal kissing gate rather swiftly.

8. Once through, this was a fabulous stretch for Bill as there was a nice wide path and very long grass. Just walk all the way along, pausing on several occasions to have a roll if you are Bill.

9. At the end there is a metal 5-bar gate with a wooden kissing gate at the side. Go through the kissing gate and just carry on straight ahead with the hedge on your left and field on your right. And again, some lovely views. 

10. You will then come to Partridge Hall Farm.

17. The walk down the hill delivers some beautiful views in front of you and there is not much traffic, but it's best to keep dogs on leads. Then at the fabulously named 'Totterdown Hill Farm' sign on your right, you will see a public footpath sign on your left. Turn left here.

Note - on this next section we had to go a bit off path as the footpath had been blocked when we were there - so if you feel uneasy about following this part just continue down the road and you will come back into Nunburnholme and your start at the church. 

18. Follow the farm path in between fields (Bill had a paddle in a very big puddle here, while I enjoyed the wind in the wheat!). We did then have to go a bit off route as the path that we should have taken off to the right where the path is met by hedges either side, did not exist and had electric fencing over it. If, however, it has been reinstated take the footpath here off to your right, it then turns left, right again and finally left to bring you back to a gate at the top of your first hill climb at the start (at point 4)

19. Instead of taking the footpath however, we continued to walk straight ahead and at the end we came across some stacks of hay which we just walked through to the end and turned right.