A Six-Mile Circular Walk from Ebberston to Snainton via Chafer Wood and Well Dale

One of the advantages of staying at Cliff House is that you don’t always need to get in the car to explore North Yorkshire.

There are footpaths and tracks heading out from Ebberston in several directions, including routes up onto the southern edge of the North York Moors. This six-mile circular walk is one Jacqueline and I did recently, taking us from the front door of Cliff House, through Chafer Wood Nature Reserve, across the farmland above the village and down into Snainton before returning home.  Here’s a link to the route on the Ordnance Survey website.

There is also a rather useful lunch stop almost exactly where you want one.

Leaving Cliff House for Chafer Wood

We started outside Cliff House and headed north through the village before climbing into Chafer Wood Nature Reserve.

Managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Chafer Wood climbs the valley immediately behind Ebberston and combines mature woodland, limestone grassland and more open areas as you gain height.

The paths here can be steep and uneven in places, but it doesn’t take long before you begin to get rewarded with views back towards the village.

One of the first landmarks you reach is King Alfred’s Cairn.

The stone monument was built in the 18th century to commemorate a battle that may (or may not) have taken place in the 8th century. Quite how much of the story is history and how much is folklore is open to debate, which probably makes the cairn more interesting rather than less.

Continue beyond the cairn and you will pass a bench looking south across Ebberston. Below you is St Mary’s Church, with the Vale of Pickering stretching away beyond it.

It is worth stopping here for a few minutes before continuing uphill.

Out onto the farmland

The path continues through Chafer Wood before eventually leaving the trees behind and emerging into open farmland.

The character of the walk changes considerably here.

As you gain height, remember to turn around occasionally. On a clear day you can look right across the Vale of Pickering towards the Yorkshire Wolds.

Continue along the route until you reach the signs for High Park Farm. Here we turned right to join the road and followed it downhill.

At the next junction, turn left and begin climbing again towards Malton Cote Farm.

This is also where you have choices.

For our walk we were aiming for a circular route of around six miles, so we turned south and followed the public rights of way across the farmland.

If you want a longer walk, however, you can continue west from around Malton Cote and add considerably more distance before eventually working your way back towards Snainton.

Whichever version you choose, Snainton makes a useful point to aim for.

Well Dale and the descent into Snainton

Our route took us south across the fields towards the top of Well Dale.

Rather than dropping directly into the dale, the path skirts around its upper edge before meeting another public road.

From here it is an easy descent towards Snainton.

By this point we had walked a good few miles and lunch was beginning to seem like an increasingly good idea.

Fortunately, Snainton has The Coachman Inn.

Lunch at The Coachman Inn

Once we reached the main road in Snainton, we turned right and headed along to The Coachman.

The pub is open seven days a week and serves food every day, making it particularly useful when planning a walk rather than having to arrange your route around limited opening times.

There is a good choice behind the bar too, including Hawkstone Lager and Cider when we visited.

We stopped for lunch and, purely in the interests of thorough route research, a pint or two of cider.

If you are planning to eat from the main menu, particularly at busy times, it is worth booking a table.

Walking back to Ebberston

Suitably refuelled, we left The Coachman and started the final section back towards Cliff House.

There is a short stretch of road walking here.

We followed the road linking the A170 and A64 for approximately 150 metres before leaving it and crossing a small bridge.

From there the route enters Snainton Golf Course.

The public footpath crosses the course, so keep an eye out for golfers and make sure it is safe before crossing the fairways and greens.

Once across the course, the route returns to farmland.

There is a gap in the field edge that can be quite easy to miss. This takes you across behind the Snainton Golf driving range and eventually onto Green Lane.

Scarth Lane back into Ebberston

Scarth Lane is an old trackway running back towards Ebberston and makes for a pleasant final section of the walk.

Follow it until you reach Back Lane in the village, turn right and head gently uphill.

At the top you meet the main road through Ebberston, from where it is only a short walk back to Cliff House.

Our complete route came in at around six miles.

It is long enough to feel that you have been out for a decent walk, without taking over the whole day, and the stop in Snainton breaks it up nicely.

Better still, the whole thing starts and finishes at Cliff House.

No searching for somewhere to park, no driving home in muddy boots and, if you have had a couple of ciders with lunch, no argument about who is driving.

Planning the walk

The route uses woodland paths, public rights of way, farm tracks, minor roads and a short section across Snainton Golf Course.

Although we found it relatively easy, conditions underfoot will vary with the weather and there are steep and uneven sections through Chafer Wood.

We would always recommend taking an OS map or having the route available on your phone, particularly across the farmland where paths can sometimes be less obvious.  Don’t forget that we provide local OS maps in every cottage.

There are also several opportunities around Malton Cote Farm to extend the walk if six miles isn’t enough.

For guests staying at Cliff House, it is another route that shows just how much there is to explore without taking the car anywhere at all.