RILLINGTON TO MALTON by Tania Dickinson This walk takes you from the Vale of Pickering up on to the Wold scarp, before dropping down again through the pretty village of Settrington and joining the Centenary Way into Malton. Distance 8.4 miles. Difficulty Moderate (two hills, the second very short). Map You will need to have with you and be prepared to use OS Explorer 300 or OS Landranger 100. Travel Coastliner bus 843 (Scarborough) or 845 (Bridlington) to Rillington from York railway station or Stonebow. Get off at The Fleece bus stop, beside the church in the village centre. Creature Comforts Pubs, cafes and public toilets in Malton. Rillington church
Route Details Cross the main road at the traffic lights (1) and turn right (south-east) to go up the High Street, which continues as a trackway. Where it meets a cross track, continue forwards on the path and crossing a footbridge (2). The Rillington beck is now to the right of the path. Just past Walnut Tree farm, the path joins the road (3). Turn left to walk through Thorpe Bassett, and at the south end of the village, turn left on a minor road (4). This soon becomes a hard-surfaced bridleway (farm track) that climbs gently uphill. Follow this bridleway towards Peacock Farm; don t go up the farm driveway ahead of you, but keep on the bridleway, which is here marked Private Road to Rowgate farm as it bends left. Bassett Brow At Rowgate farm (5), take a footpath on the right diagonally (south-east) across a field (as at 2017, the official access gate is redundant, while there is an ungated gap a little further on, opposite the farmyard). Note also that there can be temporary cattle enclosures within the field. At the far left-hand corner, go through the gate and turn right. At first, the path runs immediately beside the fence line to its right, but it then veers diagonally to the left to climb up and across the slope of Bassett Brow.
At the top of the slope (6), pause to admire the view, then go through the gate and a small patch of woodland. Skirt anticlockwise round the derelict remains of Many Thorns Farm, and continue up the left side of the arable field to the summit of the hill (7). Again admire the views from the top, then descend through the next arable field on a diagonal (slightly south-westerly) line, aiming for the telegraph pole, which is almost beside the footpath signpost at the bottom. Cross the road and take the driveway to Wold House. Wold House farm Just short of Wold House, on your right and across a short triangle of grass, is a stile over a wire fence (8). Go over it. The waymark at the stile directs you straight ahead, but at this point the correspondence between the right-of-way path on the OS map, any visibly walked pathline and waymarks on gates is not consistent. Technically, you should walk down just to the left side of the trees ahead, and then gradually curve round to the left to meet the farm s tractor track, and so to a waymarked gate. But it is better from the stile to aim diagonally to the left (south-eastwards) over the brow of the slope to reach the farm track and the waymarked gate.
Go through this gate (9) and straight on down the hill to another waymarked gate at the bottom (ignore another gate over to your right). Cross through the gate and over the stream, where it is quite boggy. The path now curves left uphill, meeting the wood on its right (a sheltered spot with views, good for a lunch stop). Follow the wood edge round, through into another field and then turn left on to the driveway from Wardale, which leads to the road. At the road, turn left (10) and go downhill, skirting Settrington House. Turn right at the junction with the main road, joining the route of the Centenary Way. Settrington church and rear of Settrington House Rather than following the road (actually Back Lane) through the village, branch off right down a short lane (11), which takes you to a path beside a stream that forms the real centre of the village, with attractive properties on either side. Should you wish to take a detour to see the church, this is also the only way (there is no public right of way from Settrington House to the church): cross the stream by the footbridge, turn left, then right up a short lane and right again; then retrace your steps to re-join the walk. At the bottom, turn left back on to the main road (12) and then straight on to Town Street, thus re-joining the Centenary Way, and continue along the road through Town Green. Where
the road swings sharply to the left (13), continue forward on a trackway, which becomes a path, with field hedges to its left. The path takes a dog-leg along a dismantled railway embankment (14), going up on the left, then along, and left again down. After this it continues with the field hedges on its immediate left. Before reaching the main road at Norton, turn sharp right on a path that skirts northwest (15) and then west round the final field to Norton Lodge (16). The last stretch is along roads through Norton to Malton. Turn right (on to the B1248) and stay on the right of the road until the chicane, then cross to keep to the left side. Fork left at Beverley Road (17) and then sharp left round an engineering works (Wood Street). Turn right at the T-junction (18), and then left into the main road (Church Street, the B1248 again). Finally, at the junction of Church Street and Welham Road, where the roads cross a level crossing (a difficult junction to navigate), turn right (19). Either continue over the bridge (Castlegate) into the centre of Malton or turn left (Norton Road) and on the right-hand side take the short river walk back to the bus station, turning left at the end where the path meets the road.