Walkers are Welcome
Pocklington is a ‘gateway’ to both the Yorkshire Wolds and to the Lower Derwent Valley.
It’s a hub around which you can explore on foot (or on bike or horse) the delightful, almost secret and hidden, Wolds chalk landscape with its winding valleys whose steep sides abound with wildlife and natural vegetation.
There is direct access from Pocklington onto well established routes such as the Wolds Way; the Chalkland Way (which begins and finishes in the town); the Minster Way and the Wilberforce Way - all long distance trails if their full course is walked. Some of today’s paths from the town up into the Wolds follow prehistoric ways trodden for thousands of years.
However, minor deviations from these marked footpaths allow shorter, circular walks starting and finishing in Pocklington, which still allow you to savour the spectacular views over the Vale of York. Why not try the route through Kilnwick Percy to Millington then back to Pocklington along the west facing scarp of the Wolds? Six miles of steady walking over rolling countryside - entrancingly quiet but spectacular.
If the hills of the Wolds are too challenging, try a lowland walk out from the town to Canal Head, and then along the towpath of the Pocklington Canal. At Thornton you can choose between Allerthorpe Common and Woods, or press on and access to the Lower Derwent Valley with its protected sites for vegetation and insects. The ‘marshlands’ of the valley are another secret landscape, preserved from a pre-Domesday way of life. Six or seven miles of pleasant walking, but so intriguing in what it reveals. A quarter of the 48 Sites of Special Scientific Interest in East Yorkshire are within easy walking distance of Pocklington.
If you fancy a town walk then pick up a copy of the Pocklington History & Heritage Trail from the local bookshop. It steers you round the historic heart of the town, notes the interesting buildings and events, including the ancient church, and ends outside the internationally famous Burnby Hall Gardens and museum, which has its own one and a half miles of lakeside and woodland paths, most wheelchair friendly.