Yorkshire Wolds' Wonders

On the Hockney trail and more

A long weekend with friends, luckily with fine weather, was my introduction to an area of the country that I hadn't appreciated before. As a child I had gone on holiday, many times, to Bridlington, but we had travelled by train so didn't get the chance to drive around the surrounding area.

This time we stayed in a cottage in a small village called Wold Newton in East Yorkshire, right in the heart of the Yorkshire Wolds.  The scenery is gently undulating with small fields of ripening crops (in June) all at slightly different stages so the colours made a lovely patchwork of greens, golds, yellows with the occasional splash of red poppies or blue flax.

Yorkshire Wolds

The coast is close by and we headed across to Bempton Cliffs where there is an RSPB nature reserve. The cliffs are teeming with nesting seabirds and when we watched closely we could see some of their chicks.  We spotted plenty of gannets, kittiwakes, fulmars, guillemots, razorbills and a few puffins. The puffins look incredibly cute as they come in to land with their orange feet spread wide apart.

There are six viewing platforms which help you to see the birds clinging to the cliffs.  As we approached these the sound of bird calls got louder and the smell got stronger!  Many of these have accessible areas for wheelchair users or for children in pushchairs so they can easily view the seabirds too. Information boards help you identify the birds and show how they change in appearance at different ages.  

Information board by one of the viewing platforms

Bempton Cliffs

Gannets nesting on Staple Newk

The historic market town of Beverley is buzzing with people on a Saturday with two market areas (Saturday Market and Wednesday Market) packed with stalls selling an amazingly wide range of goods, from sausages to bathroom sinks! There are lots of interesting street names such as Hengate, Sow Hill and Dog and Duck Lane, plenty of ancient architecture and a very impressive Minster. We tried the local beer in an authentic old pub called the White Horse Inn on Hengate, also known to the locals as Nellies.  It was originally a coaching inn dating from the 1600s and still has gas lights, open fires and ranges, rickety wooden and stone floors and small, cosy rooms. It has bags of character and is well worth a visit.

Wednesday Market in Beverley (on a Saturday!)

Beverley Minster

We came across a black tower, which used to be a windmill, near Beverley Racecourse and I managed to take a photo which included the Minster and the black tower.

The Black Tower and Beverley Minster in the distance

One of the inspirations for our visit was David Hockney's paintings and films of the Yorkshire Wolds which we saw at the exhibition of his work earlier this year at Tate Britain.  We followed lanes around the villages of Kilham, Thixendale and Huggate trying to spot the locations he had painted. The tunnel of trees on Woldgate caused us to travel back on ourselves to get the best viewpoints.

Woldgate, tunnel of trees

I particularly loved the open vistas from lanes above Huggate where the colourful fields were looking beautiful in the sunshine.

Wolds landscape

Flamborough Head was also a revelation.  There is an old lighthouse - which has an open top where a fire would have been lit and there is a newer lighthouse which is in use. The land and seascape around the newer lighthouse is delightful and the view northwards of Selwicks Bay with Bempton Cliffs further on was one of my favourites.

Selwicks Bay seen from Flamborough Head

Malton, the self styled 'food capital of Yorkshire' had to have a visit and we found an old market area, a good pie shop (Costello's - famed for their steak and rabbit pies - their Yorkshire Curt Tart was delicious) and a good place for coffee (The Patisserie). 

We headed home on Monday with a short stop at Wold's Way Lavender, however it must not have been the best time to visit as we were expecting fields and fields of purple lavender and there was some lavender flowering but not yet in full bloom (last week of June).  There is a nature trail and a maze, shop and cafe but not enough lavender for us so we were a bit disappointed.

Wold's Way Lavender

The weather was still good so we stopped for a picnic at Kirkham Priory, which was closed when we got there so we picnicked on the grass in front of the main gate.  The scene was very pretty with the old ruins, the River Derwent flowing by, an old stone bridge, a family of swans and a field of lazing cows. A picturesque end to a lovely long weekend.

The River Derwent at Kirkham