Thornton-le-Dale walks: seven circular routes from the village

This is the one that shows you the shape of the village. Climb the church steps and take the elevated path past the lychgate, where the roofs and the Hall lay themselves out below you and it becomes obvious how the settlement grew along the beck. The path then drops to Rectory Lane, which you follow as far as the junction with Dog Kennel Lane before a footpath brings you back to the car park.

One genuine word of warning on the descent: keep to the gravel path. There is a ha-ha alongside it, a concealed ditch, dug so that a view could be had without a fence in it, and by high summer the growth can hide the drop entirely. It is an easy thing to stumble into and a hard thing to laugh about afterwards.

Turn left at the footbridge and walk out along Priestman's Lane with the beck on your left. You pass the old mill and then the bowling green, often in use, always worth a moment, before the lane starts to climb. It is one gentle uphill, not a haul. Near the top a kissing gate on the left opens into China Garth, a narrow way threading between houses and gardens that feels like a shortcut you were let in on, and delivers you onto Brook Lane and back to the centre.

Step-free alternative: ignore the kissing gate, carry on up the hill, turn left at the top and come back down Whitbygate. This loop has been walked as a whole, and the lane and Whitbygate are firm and wide enough for a wheelchair the whole way round.

– Checked on the ground; not a published source. Jon Cosson, September 2026

If you reach St Hilda's with plenty of day left, this is where the walk turns into an expedition. Continue along the stream past the trout farm, then a stile and footpath take you up into Dalby Forest. The forest roads here are wide and shared with cyclists, so walk with half an ear out for mountain bikers coming down behind you.

The route drops to a footbridge over a stream and climbs to a forest track heading back towards Thornton-le-Dale, with the option of detouring to Dalby village and returning the same way if you want the extra mileage. Coming home you pass a bird hide near Sand Dale, worth sitting in for ten silent minutes, and a run of gates through grazing land: close them, there is livestock. Past the trout farm again to Ellerburn, and you are back on the Green Walk for the last stretch.

For the forest proper, trails, the Forestry England parking charge (payable by length of stay, so check the current charge before you travel) and the cycling, see our cycling page, for the tree-top courses see Go Ape at Dalby Forest; also days out nearby, and yorkshiremoors.com for walks across the wider North York Moors. From Haygate car park on the Forest Drive, a short footpath leads to the Ellerburn Bank wildflower reserve.

The everyday walk, and the reason so many villagers have a dog. From the car park follow the entrance road with the playing field on your left, and slip into the woods just before the small bridge, two minutes from the car and already under trees. Expect mud from November to March; this is not a route for clean shoes.

Follow the stream, passing a field with sheep, chickens and a horse in it, until you reach a five-bar gate. Turn right and cross two footbridges, the stretch between them is the best paddling in the village for dogs and children alike, and there is a dog-waste bin between the two. Then head north on Maltongate back to the start. Do stop on the bridges on the way and look down: brown trout hold in the shade under them, quite still, until they are not.

In autumn, the conkers along this walk are the best in the village.

Start exactly as for Woods & Maltongate, into the woods and along the stream, but at the five-bar gate turn left along Bottons Lane. A kissing gate takes you into the fields, dog on a lead from here, and the path runs diagonally across with the old railway station away to your right, then up the hill. The lambs on this slope are famously unbothered by people and will often walk over to inspect you, which is worth the whole outing if you have children with you.

A third kissing gate puts you onto a quiet road: turn left and follow it past the allotments and the cemetery, where the views open out gloriously. Keep an eye on the front gardens along here for a bungalow with a full model village laid out in it, lit up at Christmas, as is the village itself, which is a proper occasion locally.

Come back either on the ha-ha footpath, keeping to the gravel, as on the Yellow Walk, or carry on along Peaslands and Dog Kennel Lane into the centre and reward yourself on the tea rooms and ice cream.