Dog-friendly Thixendale

A short round out of Thixendale that Yorkshire Wildlife Trust publish and waymark, taking in three restored dew ponds - the only standing water for miles in a landscape of dry chalk valleys. Out of the village up the steep pull of Huggate Hill Road, right past Gills Cottage onto the Wolds Way stoned track, past the carved interpretation panel and the 2019 restored pond, then down into the valley past the Waves and Time spiral earthwork and back along the dale road. The ant hills on the grassy slope above the valley bottom are hundreds of years old. The ponds are stock drinking water rather than dog water - carry your own, because there is nothing else.

The classic Thixendale round: out of the village north-east on the Centenary Way, up over the wold and down the long footpath into the valley at Wharram Percy, then back on the single-track road through Burdale. Wharram Percy is English Heritage land, free to walk into and open in daylight hours, and the roofless shell of St Martin's church sits in a grass hollow with the millpond below it. Nearly all of this is dry chalk valley - no beck, no standing water - so carry water for the dog even in mild weather. The last two and a half miles along the Burdale dale road are almost traffic-free and easy on tired paws.