Sometimes I’m just not in the mood for a big walk, but I still want to explore somewhere new. A few weeks ago I was feeling a bit frazzled trying to get sorted ready for our trip to Lochaber, and I wanted a walk which required minimal navigation, no mud (because after the winter we’ve had, I think we can agree that we’ve all had more than enough mud to last us a lifetime) and which would be a good option to tire the dogs out. The weather looked to be best in the North York Moors, so I perused the Where2Walk website until I came across this 6.5 mile circular walk from Helmsley.
We often drive through Helmsley without stopping – it always seems fairly busy, so I was pleasantly surprised that we got parked at 10.30am on a Sunday with no issues. We used the long stay car park close to the castle. The route follows the main road for a short way before picking up a footpath alongside a stream in a light wood – don’t be deceived by the finger post in this photo like we were, it’s not pointing the way you want to go!
Most of this walk is lovely underfoot, using good woodland paths, with just one or two muddy sections which are easily skirted. It’s also very flat, with just a few short uphill sections to contend with. Despite being in woodland for most of the walk, it’s surprisingly light, as the trees around the path have been cleared. I imagine this is usually a very tranquil place to come for a wander however, when we visited, the British national dirt bike championships were taking place on the other side of the stream, so it was maybe not as tranquil as it usually is!
Engine noises aside, it was pretty cool to catch glimpses of the bikers through the trees as they navigated their way around the course. It looked very tough with some almost vertical inclines for them to get up! About hall way around the walk we crossed over to the other side of the trees and left the bikers behind, and thus the air of tranquility I’d anticipated appeared.
The walk was surprisingly quiet considering how close it is to Helmsley. Although I suppose not everyone wants to walk 6.5 miles on a Sunday morning! When we got back to the car park we picked up some sandwiches from Auntie Anne’s bakery (I managed to resist the cakes only because I wouldn’t have been able to carry everything while attached to Merry) and then we took advantage of our English Heritage membership to have a wander around Helmsley Castle.
The castle had just a few other people milling about and certainly wasn’t too busy, which is just how we like our visitor attractions. I especially liked the bronze warriors waiting to greet you at the entrance, and the on site museum was extremely interesting with some artefacts from the castle’s history on display. Sam especially liked the old canon balls on display which had been found embedded in the castle’s towers!
Dog friendly rating: 4/5. The walk around Ash Dale is a nice dog walk, with a stream present for much of the first half of the walk, but it should be noted that there are signs up asking for dogs to be on leads (perhaps due to the many, many pheasants). When crossing over for the return leg we walked through a few fields with sheep in, one of which required a stile to get out of, which I suspect some dogs would need help navigating. Helmsley Castle is very dog friendly, with dogs on leads allowed everywhere on the site including the small museum.
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