Route: Skewsby Foulrice Stearsby Distance: 7 miles Map: Explorer: 300 Howardian Hills & Malton Start (OS ref): SE625710 Park in the village of Skewsby. Walk east out of the village to the T-Junction and turn right down the road. The road bends right and then dips, ignore a footpath sign to the left. Turn right when you reach a T-junction heading towards Bransby. Very soon though take a left turn signposted Foulrice: Stay on this path through the tiny village of Foulrice but then having passed a red bricked farm house on the left, turn right at a bridleway post through a kissing gate.
Head over the field to the way marked metal gate at the bottom of the bank. Now go uphill to intersect with another way marked metal gate in a hedge. Go through this gate and then turn right following the hedge side. Go through another gate and immediately turn left towards farm buildings: Pass through Foulrice Farm and you will eventually reach a road at the end of the drive. Cross over the road and head through the gate opposite on the right of way signposted to Seaves. The path goes down a bank and then bends right by a trench at a way marker:
When you reach a field corner by a gate, turn left up the bank then right by a way-marked tree to reach a gate: Go through the gate and follow the blue way marker straight on with the hedge to the right. You will reach another way marked gate. Again follow the blue way marked straight on towards Low Farm. There are some good views of Bransby Hall to the right here. When you reach the farm veer left to get round it:
Follow the blue way marker through another metalled gate and carry straight on with a hedge to the right. Ignore a yellow way-marked leading to the farm house. There are some fine views of the elevated village of Crayke to the left here. Go through another gate and then head over to the right of wood edge straight across a field: At the end of the wood go through an opening and then turn right at the border with Water End Farm. NB there is a way marker here but it is on the reverse side of a post:
You should be heading north east now with a hedge boundary to the right. When your reach the field corner follow it round left for a few metres then turn right to cross the ditch and go through a metal kissing gate. Head straight over the next field at 10 oclock to reach a way-marked metal kissing at a field boundary: Go through this kissing gate and head straight on with a fence to the left. Go through the next gate, but then head diagonally north east to reach the metal gate in the field corner leading onto Bransby Town Street.
Turn right down the road and continue for some time. You will pass a church and a bungalow on the right at the village edge. When the road bends right with some residential buildings on the left, turn left down the drive but then immediately bear right through a kissing gate to cross a field: Go through a number of kissing gates at field boundaries until you reach the road. Turn left here into Stearsby and at the T-junction turn right through the village. At the end of the village, you will see a left junction to Granary Stearsby Hall Bed & Breakfast. Carry straight on here though to head down the track signposted to Skewsby:
Ignore a way marked gap in the trees on the right and when you reach the field corner do not go down the tractor track but go left and then almost immediately right through a clearing over a wooden bridge. Then head up the bank and turn right to follow the wood edge. Again in the corner of the field do not go down the tractor track but veer left then right to go through a way-marked kissing gate: Now head over a wooden footbridge and carry straight on over the hill to a kissing gate next to a metal fence:
Go through the kissing gate and then turn sharp right in the direction of the way marker. Follow the path round the field edge and left in the corner towards a house and tennis court. This track becomes metalled and leads you back to your vehicle in Skewsby.