Green Walk, Ellerburn valley & St Hilda's Church

Directions

1. Follow the Blue route past the old mill and the bowling green.
2. Take the signed lane for Ellerburn, a quiet dead-end road with benches placed exactly where you would want them and long views up the valley.
3. The lane brings you down to St Hilda's Church at Ellerburn, of Saxon origins and among the oldest in this part of Yorkshire.
4. From the church, pick up the beckside footpath home, working through a series of gates and closing each one, until you rejoin the Blue route at the mill.
5. With a smaller pushchair, lift at the gates, or simply walk down the lane and back the same way, which loses nothing.

Before you set off

• Sheep and lambs in the fields either side of the lane: dogs on leads.
• Close each of the gates on the beckside return.
• Close every gate behind you. Several routes cross land with sheep, and a few have chickens and a horse alongside the path.
• Keep dogs under close control everywhere, and on a lead near livestock, in the churchyards and through the village.
• After heavy rain, check that Thornton Beck is not in spate before using the low beckside stretches or paddling.
• Distances, total ascent, gate and stile counts and current path conditions are not published in this guide, so carry OS Explorer map coverage or a mapping app.