Wharton & Askrigg Circular Walk

4 ½  miles:  2 hours

Moderate

  • Walk over the bridge and up the road towards Aysgarth. When a minor road branches off to the right after 200 metres, cross this minor road and through the stile opposite.
  • A defined path with stiles leads uphill across two fields and then up the side of scar emerging on a field beyond a stile.
  • The path now continues along the edge of the scar keeping the wall on your left, through two stiles and then along the very edge of the scar (and wood) with a field wall on your right.
  • After ¾ mile the path divides at a path-sign, take the right fork walking through three field gates (passing a barn on your right) and then across the field to reach the right-hand side of the farm at Cubeck.
  • Passing through the farmyard you emerge onto the minor road from Wharton to Thornton Rust. Turn left and follow the road downhill to Wharton, crossing the main road and proceed downhill through Wharton on the minor road towards Askrigg.
  • After crossing the bridge over the River Ure, take the footpath signed to the left, diagonally across the field on a paved path. This paved path leads through three fields and then follow the defined path through a fourth field then up a steep banking to reach Askrigg.
  • Just before reaching the field gate ahead, go through a stile on your left through two more small fields emerging through the houses to the main street opposite Askrigg Church.

There is a good Café opposite and three pubs in the village.

  • Pass through the Churchyard through a stile and through a field on a paved path emerging back onto the main road by an outdoor pursuits centre.
  • Turn right and after 100 metres look out for a footpath sign on your left (across the road). Cross the style and turn right keeping the hedge on your right as you follow the line of the old railway. 

This is the approximate location of Fors Abbey, which stood on the site from 1145 to 1156 before the monks relocated to Jervaulx Abbey.  Alas, there are no remains.

  • Over a stile, climb onto the railway embankment and keep on to the end of the field where you drop off the embankment to the left and through a stile, over a farm track, over a bridge and stile into another field and paved path.
  • Follow the path emerging near Yorbridge House. Turn left and follow the road back into the centre of Bainbridge