Cockshot Plantation and the Ancient Ash

A tidy 4.7-mile loop with a gentle 90 metres of ascent, two hours at most, on field edges and plantation tracks north of the town, with one or two gates and a stretch that churns up in winter. Start from the market place in Kirkbymoorside, which has free parking off Crown Square and is on the Moorsbus and the York to Helmsley bus route. The plantations are quiet enough for a decent off-lead run and there is a beck near Cockshot for a drink, but the intervening fields hold sheep and cattle, so lead up at every gate.