Eastrington Ponds and the old railway line

Twenty-three acres of former brickworks clay pits on Howden Road, declared a local nature reserve in 2002 and now the best short walk between Howden and Gilberdyke. A one-kilometre loop rings the main pond past the bird hide, and a second trail runs out along the tree-lined bed of the old railway, so the two together make a proper circuit of about a mile and a half on level grass and stone. There is a medium-sized free car park at the entrance and picnic seats roughly every hundred metres, which makes it an easy stop with an older dog. The council's visitor information asks that dogs are kept under close control and out of the water, which matters here because the ponds hold great crested grebes and water voles.