Right of Way: Public and permissive paths (Yorkshire Wildlife Trust).
Map: Drawn from OS Explorer 299 Ripon and Boroughbridge.
Dogs: Not allowed on Upper Dunsforth Carrs (optional area at start of route).
Date walked: October 2007.
Road Route: From York via Green Hammerton.
Car Parking: Roadside in Upper Dunsforth.
Lavatories: None.
Refreshments: Pub - The Angler Country Inn at Lower Dunsforth.
Tourist & Public Transport Information: Harrogate TIC 08453 893223.
Terrain: Flat floodplain.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.
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Google Map
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Upper Dunsforth is a little place near York, it’s nearer Boroughbridge and even nearer Lower Dunsforth which we walked to, via the river.
The upper village, it’s only a matter of feet in altitude, has an SSSI named Upper Dunsforth Carrs. Here thanks to The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust we took the permissive path and duckboards through acres where the peat lies 20 feet deep, and where there are six species of rush, a bay willow and an aspen thicket. This is a rare but once the norm here before agricultural drainage.
The river is a mile away. Half that we did with ease on a track cum linear resting place for ex sheds called Gale Gate, a lane restless with chained dogs. Half the rest we managed by skirting thistle and ploughed land, a stretch livened by a tree full of small birds and an attendant hawk. And the last bit was over pasture with thorn trees that were once hedge and where spiders drifted in the air on threads of silk. And then the river.
Our first sight was of a kingfisher arrowing electric blue over a glassy surface wide and long to vanish into banks of willows. We lay down, didn’t move a muscle but to chew a sandwich, noted a big high raptor and otherwise just watched the river so still and the clouds reflected. All was very quiet and could have induced an hour’s doze in sun. The kingfisher did return, and another predator of perch and roach arrived with a rod and pedigree being a member of the Hambleton Ramblers.
We talked, left him to compete with the kingfisher, and walked the floodbank. It’s a lovely stretch of a river that drains huge territories to the north and west. Here, a mile downstream from the confluence of the Ure and Swale, it has the name Ure, and for three more miles until it is renamed The Ouse and in ten miles reaches York.
Here and there, to one side, are stands of very tall giant hogweeds, brittle, dramatic and dead, like inverted parasols, plants that should not be touched. At another place cattle lumbered up from the waterside to try to stare us down and claim the floodbank with their tons of beef. They parted, soft as salami. Narrow barges are painted dark blue to shocking pink and sport conifers, wind generators and digital aerials.
And that was the two miles of riverside, bar ducks, and after a caravan site there's the Anglers Inn with a pike. This is Lower Dunsforth.
The village is similar to the upper version but a tad larger. It’s a mile between the two, by the back lane that is closed to traffic until mid November, or across the fields.
We chose the latter, despite having been caught up by the ploughing on the way out. And actually the path across a sown field should have been reinstated for pedestrians as it was greening. Looking at the OS map I can see that the publess Upper Dunsforth is connected to its three nearest, nearly equidistant and inn blessed villages by various paths and tracks, talk about the midnight rambler.
Image Gallery
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Walks: Descriptions 
