Deep Dale

11:27am Saturday 6th September 2008

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George Wilkinson enjoys delving into the large Wolds valley of Deep Dale.

DEEP Dale is quite a rarity for the Wolds, being a large valley that is not dry but has a stream and is also in part Open Access Land under the Crow Act. We tried but failed to access the dale from the village of Acklam, so our start was a verge above Deep Dale. I parked my “reasonably priced car” tight to the hedge (think combine harvester and register the width of nearby gateways).

A few yards away a sign read ‘Chalkland Way’. A communications tower looks particularly harsh on a smooth curved horizon. We walked by a wheat field, out of the valleys it was all wheat, big fields yellowed grey, the grains were hard and dry. Burr bushes told of walkers past and soon we reached another Chalkland Way sign, this one qualified by the warning of a ‘Steep Gradient’, which it is. Anyway it was our plan to avoid this and explore to the top of the valley, where it is open access and is called Hanging Grimston.

That done we turned down into the valley and the heat increased to become hot and sticky. A deer bounced away up and steep, almost invisible as it moved silent and fast through the scrub.

Gilder Beck starts at a spring and runs chalk filtered over a gleaming white bed. Through the haze the valley widened and cooling towers on the far flat plains were arranged in groups. The beck has beds of iris that have been trimmed by sheep or cattle and beds of water mint that were flowering lilac. The Chalkland Way leaves Deep Dale and rises to or above Acklam Ings. A yellow combine murmured in the lowlands and finch flitted in the ash trees of our dead-end lane. We turned to cross Gilder beck again and here is a bed of tall pink flowering hairy willow herbs and, no relation, at least two types of woody willows, one like a shrub. In a near field a red combine worked with a red tractor and blue trailer.

The last half mile is a climb of 250 feet over half a mile, the highways sign on the back lane reads ‘1 in 6’. The road is sunken but peer over the bank when near the top and look between the beeches to see York’s Minster and big wheel.

Directions

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. West along road (wide verge), stile/fieldgate on right at sharp left-hand bend (fingerpost Chalkland Way) to wide field-edge path (hedge to your left).

2. At three-way fingerpost: EITHER keep to public right of way via stile on left and very steep downhill and turn left at gate on your right about 20 yards above stream; OR enter open access area via stile ahead, angle left and along brow of hillside, left to track near head of valley and downhill (wire fence to your right). At gate in fence access area ends.

3. Path on bank above stream, becomes track in scrub and drops down to valley bottom, gateway (waymark).

4. Stile (waymark) and footbridge, 50 yards by fence to gated footbridge over Gilder Beck (waymark), 1 o’clock uphill for 200 yards to metal fieldgate by hedge (waymark).

5. One o’clock uphill across field and left within field so fence/trees to your right. Stile/fieldgate on crest of hill (waymark), field-edge path.

6. New ‘low fence’ (fingerpost) by bungalow, right 10 yards, left to road, 200 yards, left at crossroads (dead-end sign).

7. Track on left (fieldgate and raised fingerpost), bridge and angle right across field away from stream and crest hill (if electric fence there it was to our right), drop downhill to corner and waymarked stile near gated ford.

8. Uphill with fence/trees to your right, stile/gate (waymark), wide grass field margin with fence to your left.

9. Gate/fieldgate on left to track uphill, gate/fieldgate. Left to gated road.

Fact file

Distance: Five miles.

General location: Yorkshire Wolds.

Start: Verge west of Wold Farm.

Right of way: Public, and Open Access option.

Map: Drawn from OS Explorers 294 and 300.

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: August 2008.

Road route: From York: A166, left turn signed ‘Malton 12, Thixendale 3’, then four miles to left turn signed ‘Hanging Grimston (gated road)’.

Car parking: Roadside verge.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: The Half Moon inn at Acklam.

Tourist and public transport information: 01653 600048.

Terrain: Valley.

Points of interest:The Chalkland Way is a 40 mile circular usually started from Pocklington.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.