Walk 576 Huttons Ambo
Distance: Four and a half miles.
General Location: Near Malton.
Start: Low Hutton in Huttons Ambo.
Right of Way: Public and permissive. The permissive access ends 1 September 2011, but the walk is doable without.
Map: Drawn from OS Explorer 300 Howardian Hills and Malton.
Dogs: Legal.
Date walked: April 2008.
Road Route: From the A46, signed.
Car Parking: Roadside in village or small parking area near footbridge down Derwent Avenue.
Lavatories: None.
Refreshments: None.
Tourist & Public Transport Information: Malton TIC 01653 600048.
Terrain: Low and flat.
Points of interest: The suspension bridge is Grade 2 Listed.
Difficulty: Quite easy.
Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.
Please click the image below to go to the walking route sketch map and detailed directions, or scroll down to a Google Map of the route, the route description, and an image gallery. Plus you can bookmark this page on your favourite social bookmarking site, and comment on the walk. We hope you enjoy the walk.
Googlemap
Click on "Satellite" to see our route superimposed on the satellite photograph of the land. Use the tools to zoom in or out and or the "hand" to move across the map. The icon of two hikers is at the start of the route and when clicked shows its direction. The route line is approximate. To follow our directions please use our sketch maps (link above).
Google Earth is even more dynamic but if you don't already have it you will need to download it first.
Click on "Open Lightbox" to see the Google Map in its own window.
If you can't see the walk outline on the Google Map/Satellite/Earth please refresh the screen
Huttons Ambo is of two parts, Low Hutton and High Hutton, ambo is latin for both. It has three bridges and the blue York to Scarborough train rumbled over one of red brick then another of black iron as we pulled on our boots. The third is for us the pedestrian, and it's an 1885 gem, a suspension from green wires stretching the one hundred feet over the River Derwent. Feel it sway as you tread its wooden boards from the North Riding to the East, the kids will love it.
The Derwent was brown, Menethorpe Beck rippled clear, and this we followed on a path through a Countryside Stewardship Site yellow with celandine, dandelion and the last of the daffodils.
For the first walk this year we felt the charm of spring and a kestrel hovered for its share. The Wolds make a horizon, gentle and barely above mid distance trees.
Near Menethorpe Hall is a splendid black Dutch Barn. This is arable country, fields flat and fast for the hare, shaped as a very shallow valley, soil that is light tan and, if you squeeze and roll a bit between the fingers, there's the roughness of sand and the stickiness of clay.
The crops were well advanced, obscuring footpath lines, routes devoid of waymarks, but no problem, just a modification here and there is required to follow the field margins.
But watch out, brace yourself hereabouts because on the line of the public footpath, at one end of a length of freestanding hedge, we passed within a yard or two of a bird scarer, one of those powered by a gas cylinder. On the end of its long barrel one read the words ‘Warning Keep Clear'. Naughty.
At Manor Farm the new sheds are pale. This is another good looking spot, the old and new, neat stacks of big bales and a small stack of small bales with a sign reading ‘ Danger Bale Stack' that didn't bother the dozing cat. Here there are horses, a menage which is one of those squares for drilling and dressage, and a cross-country course that the walk crosses.
The next farm has a modern shed coloured grass green, horsechestnuts had candles grown an inch so far and a deer bounced into a rhododendron wood.
Carthagena is the last farm. Carthagena in Spain is fortified and has an arsenal. The Yorkshire namesake was defended by another bird scarer near the footpath. You'll really know about it if one of these goes off, if oblivious you're strolling by. We survived and re-entered the valley we walked to start with, a parallel route, the blackthorn flowering white on its leaf bare branches, the hawthorn green and yet to flower. It had been peaceful and pleasant.
Image Gallery
Please click your mouse on any of the images to open the image lightbox.
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