Walk · East Riding of Yorkshire

Driffield Riverhead, the Beck and Little Driffield

Driffield · YO25 6PP

4.2MILES

2hON FOOT

45mCLIMB

CircularSHAPE

Off-road 80% 20% shares tarmac with cars

Field & moor path 50%Lane & track 30%Road with traffic 20%

Our drawing of the route — the shape of the walk, not a navigation aid. Carry OS Explorer on the hill. Off-lead information here is what walkers reported or what signage allows — never our advice. Whether and when a dog is off the lead is the owner’s decision and legal responsibility; keep dogs under control near livestock and follow signs on the day.

Starts at

Riverhead, Driffield, at the head of the Driffield Navigation off River Head road YO25 6PP

Parking

Free long-stay parking at Riverhead beside the basin, plus the Market Place bays in town which are pay and display. Riverhead fills with boat traffic and anglers on summer weekends.

Directions to the start →

Great Driffield grew round the Riverhead, the top basin of the Driffield Navigation, and this circuit walks out of it the other way to the older village that gave the town its name. From the Riverhead the route follows the clear chalk beck west past the mill sites, crosses to the churchyard of St Mary at Little Driffield where a Northumbrian king is supposed to lie, then loops north over the arable of Driffield Wold before dropping back down the beck. The water is spring-fed chalk stream, gin-clear and shallow, and it is a genuine trout fishery, so a dog crashing about in it will not be thanked. The upper field paths are cross-field and heavy after ploughing.

THE SMALL PRINTEast Riding of Yorkshire Council's countryside dog-walking guidance: keep your dog on a lead, or keep it in sight at all times, be aware of what it is doing and be confident it will return to you promptly on command. Around farm animals and horses it must be on a lead, and on a short lead in fields with sheep. No Public Spaces Protection Order applies to this route; the council's dog orders here cover only fenced children's play areas, school grounds, listed churchyards and cemeteries, and four named beaches on the coast. The Driffield Beck and West Beck are managed chalk-stream trout fisheries in private ownership with rights of way alongside, so keep the dog out of the water and off the fishing platforms. Sheep are grazed on the beck-side meadows between the town and Little Driffield.

House rules, decoded

Off-lead allowed

Livestock — leads on

REGION · EAST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE

GRID · 54.0027, -0.4425

SOURCE · HTTPS://WWW.EASTRIDINGCOASTANDCOUNTRYSIDE.CO.UK/WALKING-AND-ROUTES/DOG-WALKING/

Driffield Riverhead, the Beck and Little Driffield

House rules, decoded

Bell Hotel

Blacksmiths Cottage

Bollywood Indian

Dog-friendly cottages you can book

Tell us the pub we have not walked into yet.

Get the new stamps first.

Your patch, watched for you.