Our drawing of the route — the shape of the walk, not a navigation aid. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.
Millington Wood is a fifty-two acre Local Nature Reserve and SSSI managed by East Riding of Yorkshire Council's Countryside Access Team, sat at the mouth of the chalk dry valleys known as Millington Dales. There are no public rights of way inside the wood, only permissive paths, and the council's own line is that you can bring your dog provided you pick up after it and keep it under close control. From the small car park on Wood Gate the route climbs the main ride to the viewpoint, then follows the single-track dale road up onto Millington Pastures, one of the last stretches of unploughed chalk grassland in the Wolds, before dropping back down the valley. The dales are bone dry with no beck and no ponds, so carry water. Sheep and cattle are grazed on the pastures and the fields either side of the road are not fenced from the verge.
Millington Pastures is the largest surviving block of unimproved chalk grassland in the Wolds, a fan of dry valleys above Millington village that has never been ploughed and is still grazed in the old strips. This circuit takes the dale road up from the village, breaks off into Sylvan Dale, contours round the steep grass shoulder into Nettle Dale and comes back over the top with the Vale of York spread out behind. Almost all of it is registered access land under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, which is the point worth knowing: on access land dogs must be on a lead no more than two metres long from 1 March to 31 July for the ground-nesting birds, and on a lead at any time of year near livestock. There is no water anywhere on the tops - these are dry valleys with no beck at all - so carry a bottle and a bowl.
A sixteenth-century beamed local on Main Street at the bottom of Millington, the obvious finish for the dry valleys of Millington Pastures and the only bar for miles once you are off the Wolds Way. Low ceilings, an inglenook log fire, hand-pulled regional ale and a ceiling papered with an enormous map of Yorkshire. The house line is plain: "We welcome well behaved (and clean!) dogs on leads in all areas of the pub." It is shut all day Monday and food stops mid-afternoon on a Sunday, so time the walk to suit.
The Ramblers' Rest is a place to eat on Main Street, Millington. It is listed here so you know it is there, but we have not yet established whether dogs are welcome — so there is no verdict on this page and no stamp. If it is your business, claim the page and tell us, and we will stamp it.
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