Easter Walking Festival to be launched in the beautiful countryside and rich history of Boroughbridge area

Welcome Walking Festival will offer routes ranging from three to 16 miles.

First held more than ten years ago, the aim is to showcase the Boroughbridge area and its varied history, dating as far back as the 4,000-year-old Devil’s Arrows.

The festival begins tomorrow, Good Friday, April 7 at 10am with a 16-mile walk starting from the Crown Hotel in Boroughbridge.

The River Round follows the south side of the River Ure, with a refreshment break in Aldborough, and returns along the north bank from Myton-on-Swale.

Also on Good Friday, the Langthorpe Loop will begin at 2pm from the Langthorpe picnic area beside the bridge over the River Ure.

The walk will be led by members of a local walking group, Boroughbridge Amblers.

The route includes the site of the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322, and walkers will hear about a prisoner’s cell in the cellar of a local public house and more.

Easter Saturday takes walkers to the attractive village of Roecliffe and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Staveley Nature Reserve.

Starting from Langthorpe picnic area car park at 10am, this is an 11-mile walk but there is an option to shorten by joining on Roecliffe village green at 10.30am.

The afternoon five-mile walk starts from a layby created from part of the former A1 dual carriageway close to Rabbit Hill business park, on the A168 south of Boroughbridge.

The Easter Sunday morning walk Reflection in Time is always popular.

The three-mile stroll around the town from Langthorpe picnic area at 10am is based on a Boroughbridge Historical Society leaflet available from the library.

It looks at its history from the neolithic or early Bronze Age Devil’s Arrows standing stones, whose origins are still shrouded in mystery; the adjoining Roman town of Aldborough, the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 and a lot more.

The Great Ouseburn Bronte Walk on Sunday afternoon starts at 2pm from the village hall.

2020 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of the author Anne Bronte She was governess to four children at the nearby Thorp Green Hall where her brother, Branwell, was a tutor. They both drew inspiration from the surrounding area.

The walk is five miles.

Easter Monday morning sees the Dog Kennel Lane walk starting from Langthorpe picnic area at 10am. It is inspired by a Boroughbridge Historical Society project financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Members recorded Neolithic finds, ancient river crossings, researched Roman remains and properties with historic connections on the Newby Hall Estate.

They found links to the Battle of Culloden in 1745. Historic properties along the six-mile route include Brampton Hall, home of the Tancreds, who were implicated in the 1569 rebellion against Queen Elizabeth 1, and Mulwith, birthplace of Mary Ward.

The Festival will end on Easter Monday afternoon with a four-mile walk from Great Ouseburn, starting at 2pm. The walk takes you through the hidden Dale and return through Little Ouseburn.

All walks are guided.

There is no need to book. Just turn up at the start location listed in the festival leaflet which is available from Boroughbridge Library in St James’s Square or online at www.boroughbridgewalks.org.uk.