Helkir one

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This is a beautiful part of the country and the views on a clear day would be beautiful. A reasonable walk from Helmsley to Kirkbymoorside, but it is note suitable for any walkers with a mobility issue or even an off-road pushchair. The terrain for the walk was a mixture of open fields, woods, a few country roads, and generally slightly muddy single-track footpaths. Obstacles included stiles and at least one footbridge which had steps up and down either side. There are also no facilities enroute for refreshments or calls of nature. A field that you need to go through did have a sign saying that it may contain cows and calves, and that they could be aggressive. There were no cows in the field this time, but if there had been there wasn’t an obvious alternative route.
Luckily, we had GPS and used OS maps to help us navigate as there were times in the journey that it was used as it wasn’t clear from the marked route as to where the path went. For instance, whilst following the route and a path into a wood, the footpath then stopped, and we realised that we should have been on the other side of the fence to the side of the wood. Thankfully we found a part of the fence to climb across without barb wire at the top.
At one particularly point a bridleway was reached, the route took us all the way to the left and then to a field to come all the way back again. We reached a padlocked gate which we were able to crawl across but the route to a footbridge from there was not very visible. When we eventually found the footbridge, we discovered that if we had turned left at the bridleway T-junction, we would have hit the footbridge sooner and without any obstacles. Locked gate and alternative route are marked on one of the photos.
The final part of the walk was a little bit disappointing as it brought us through a housing estate. Additionally, just before this there was a detour to the route as the public footpath across a field was a building site that we had to walk around it – on a route that was obviously used by some dog walkers.
A nice enough walk but could do with clearer footpath markings and the route needs a little bit of amending to deal with the obstructions that we met.

Combination of woodland, open grassland, some crop fields and occasional country roads. Uneven underfoot and no toilet/ cafes along the route although lots of options in Helmsley. Reasonable signage (but we kept using gps), 1 locked gate so needed to climb fence. Large building site on entering kirbymoorside, and through housing estate was disappointing end to the walk. Not suitable for wheelchairs/ pushchairs. Note 1 gate at top of field is no longer on use and need to exit from Bottom of field- easy to find.

Leaving Helmsley the initial signpost indicating the footpath from Carlton Lane was not upright and would have been easily missed.
The path in places in uneven , with some short steep descents and ascents. There are a few styles on the way.

One gate on the recommended route was padlocked , there is an alternative route which would have taken the walker to the same point without having to go through this locked gate. (Turn left when reaching the bridlepath instead of right)

Another gateway had been blocked and required a short detour. And another gateway was easily missed .

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