Ancient in Horse Dale (Yorks Wolds)
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Reasonable footwear recommended, the OS explorer for this area is 294 – “Market Weighton & Yorkshire Wolds Central". This cache is located in an area designated as open area access land following the Countryside Rights of Way Act.
The Wolds are rich in prehistoric monuments and archaeology. Some of the most enigmatic are a series of linear earthworks known locally as dykes or entrenchments. They run for miles across the Wolds. Many of the earthworks have been ploughed down by modern farming but here and there some still exist, along hedgerows or roads or as here along the lips of the steep chalk valleys.
In Horse Dale you get a chance to walk over a mile of earthwork, believed to be late Bronze Age, perhaps about 1000BC. This earthwork is part of a series which continued out of Horse Dale through Frendal Dale in the east and Harper Dale in the West.
No one is really sure what their purpose was, did they have religious significance, or were they field boundaries, roadways, or defensive ditches? What do you think?
The nearest place to park would be on York Lane, by the private access road to Glebe Farm, but there are a number of paths from several directions you could use. There is a 4 mile mostly off road circular walk I would recommend:
Park at the Wolds Inn at Huggate and walk in to the village, the last house has a sign “The Final Frontier”, take the path over the field from here (N53 59.337 W000 39.428). You pick up the Wolds Way on a private road near Glebe Farm then head off on the Chalkland Way to a gate which is were Horse Dale open access area starts (N 53 59.672 W 000 40.460). Follow the path on the earthworks North East for a mile or so before re-encountering the Wolds Way for a short distance, dropping down in to the junction of three dry valleys. Continue North East in to Harper Dale, stepping across more earthworks and then climbing out of the valley and over the top. Here you will come to a sharp turn at the corner of a field and head South East towards Northfield House Farm. Within a few yards you will come to a public footpath, apparently secret and not shown on the OS, it is way-marked however and follows a hedge line down to Rabbit Dale. Head off in a southerly direction down Rabbit Dale then Cow Dale, you will emerge on a single track road which will take you back south to Huggate, and the Inn.
Additional Hints
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ng gur onfr bs gur pbeare gerr