Yorkshire Wolds Way Stage 4, Fridaythorpe to Settrington Beacon

It was obvious that it was a Saturday, as there were two or three other parties of walkers parking up in Fridaythorpe and setting out on The Wolds Way.  That said we had it to ourselves for most of the day. We had hoped for the cloudless skies of the Friday, but it was not to be and, although fairly bright for most of the day, it was overcast.

The start of the day's walk was along the side of fields of rape before we descended steeply into West Dale, the first of several steep-sided dry valleys.  At one time much of the wolds would have been given over to sheep walks, but now sheep pasture is to found mainly in the dales.  The plunging banks of the Yorkshire Wolds seen at numerous points on today's stage, form one of the few landscapes in Britain that have been preserved more or less intact for the best part of a thousand years.  From the calcium rich soil there springs a highly distinctive flora including cowslips, salad burnet, rock rose, thyme, mouse-eared chickweed, mouse-ear hawkweed, fairy flax, pignut, sheep's fescue, eyebright, burnet saxifrage, harebell and dropwort.  We were too early for many of these, but we did see large numbers of cowslips, water avens and bugle.  Such large numbers of flowers attract large numbers of butterflies.  We found orange-tip, peacock and tortoiseshell, but the beautiful marbled white, small copper and  meadow brown also occur.

Our route climbed out of West Dale almost immediately and over the high tops and quickly down into Thixen Dale.  Way below us, as we walked down the steep track into the dale, we could see runners and walkers who were tackling the 'Wolds 20' challenge event organised by the Long Distance Walkers Association.  Also in the bottom of the valley we could see what looked like earthworks.  These turned out to be a piece of land art commissioned and made by the artist Chris Drury.  It is called Waves and Time and is part of Wander - Art on the Yorkshire Wolds Way. (link here)

At the end of Thixen dale we came to Thixendale village itself where we were able to avail ourselves of a welcome cup of tea at the challenge walkers refreshment station in the village hall.  The village may derive its name from the fact that six major dales and ten more minor ones all radiating out from the village like the spokes of a wheel.  We left the village by climbing up out of the dale on a very steep chalk path which glared dazzlingly bright in the briefly appearing sun.  After crossing open fields we descended briefly into Vessey Pasture Dale and out the other side.  Here we stopped at the top of the bank for our lunch with wonderful expansive views.

Shortly after lunch the route turns sharp right and follows a fine green road along which I have biked with Thomas on a mountain bike orienteering event several years ago.  At the end of this we descended gradually into Deep Dale where lies the remains of the deserted medieval village of Wharram Percy.  This is an excellent spot with much of the ruined church still standing.  It continued to be used until relatively recently and served Thixendale until 1870.  On the plateau above the church are the outlines of houses and the information boards around the site are excellent.

From Wharram Percy there follows a short distance of tarmac through Wharram le Street before we struck off up another chalk road and then descended into Nine Springs Dale, up the valley side and to our finish point at Settrington Beacon where we had parked the car.

Despite the lack of sun, an excellent day's walking.

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