Zigzag Plantation & Rudston Monolith

4. Just keep walking along the wide grassy path enjoying the 'sylvan scenery' that Bulmer's Directory talks of. You will pass a gap in the trees on your left which is where Zigzag Plantation ends and South Side Plantation begins, and if you wanted to do a really short walk you could cut through here, turn left and re-join our walk at point 11.

5. At the end of the path is a metal bar gate and a road where you turn left. This road is on the route of a Roman road with various earthworks and tumuli along it (particularly if you had turned right at the road).

A Roman villa, dating from the 4th century, was first excavated near Rudston in 1839 and reported in the Gentleman’s Magazine. This date is fairly late in the scheme of Roman Britain, but it contained some of the best examples of Roman mosaics and painted wall plaster from the North of England. The site was then extensively researched from 1962-1972, when evidence of Iron-Age settlement and burials were uncovered along with further details of the Roman villa including a well and field systems. One of the most impressive discoveries were two mosaics, one depicting a charioteer and another named the Rudston Venus mosaic. The latter shows a bull, a lion and a central bear with four hunting figures surrounding the central figure, which are thought to be depictions of venatores; professional gladiators which specialised in the killing of wild animals in the arena. These mosaics are now on show in the Hull Museum of Transport and Archaeology and The East Riding and Hull Museum respectively.

11. Back at the Plantation, the path turns right and follows the edge of the woodland on your left, all the way back to point 3 along Hop Walk. Here you just pick up the path you came out on to follow it all the way back to the start. 

12. Once you are back in Rudston, I highly recommend visiting All Saints Church and the impressive Rudston Monolith, which can be found by walking up to the main road at Burton Agnus Balk / Long Street and turning right onto East Gate.

Follow East Gate over the Gypsey Race to where it turns left (straight ahead is a dead-end for traffic) and follow the road all the way to the church at the top.  The monolith can be found behind the church, but don't miss also visiting the exhibition inside the church, which will tell you more about the history of this intriguing area. 

The Neolithic / Bronze-Age monolith is made from Moorstone grit, from the Cleveland Hills, west of Whitby, possibly at Grosmont. At ground level its 5 metres round and its present height is just under 8 metres. An excavation conducted by Sir William Strickland in the late 18th century suggested that its depth below ground is as great as its height. It is thought that the stone marked a prehistoric holy place or worship centre for the pagan population of the time, and that Anglo-Saxon missionaries "Christianised" it by possibly fixing a cross to the top. This could account for the name 'Rudston' for the old English word for cross is ‘rood' and stane means 'stone'.

A popular myth about the origin of the stone is that the devil, angered at the building of a church on this pagan sacred hill hurled a huge stone javelin or thunderbolt at it to destroy it, but by divine intervention his aim was deflected and the stone landed in its present position!

 Then after your walk you could visit the Bosville Arms, which is a lovely dog-friendly community pub in the village .