Route diagram, drawn from the recorded track — for the shape of the walk, not for navigation. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.
Georgian folly-studded wild garden in a wooded gorge of the River Ure near Grewelthorpe, north-west of Ripon, restored by the Woodland Trust: grottos, cascades, a fountain and surprise views over 120 acres of ancient woodland. Steep, muddy paths reward proper boots. Dogs can run off lead within the woods, but keep them on leads near the surrounding farmland.
Seven and three quarter miles and about three and a half hours on a big circuit from the village down into the wooded gorge of Hackfall, out along the River Ure and back over the fields, with 170 metres of climbing and some genuinely steep, rooty, slippery ground inside the wood. Start in Grewelthorpe by the pond where there is roadside parking, or use the small Woodland Trust car park on the Masham road for the Hackfall end. The wood itself, with its Georgian follies and cascades, is good off-lead ground for a dog with recall, but the farmland either side is grazed and the Ure has steep undercut banks, so leads go back on at the wood gate.
A family-run Georgian village inn on Main Street, the natural finish to a walk through Hackfall Woods a mile down the lane. The pub says simply that dogs are welcome too, and the bar is the right sort of flagged, unhurried room for a damp spaniel.
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