The Humber Estuary ~ Medium Walk

Distance Covered: 5.5 miles Time to Complete Walk 3 hours

Suitable for dog walking: Yes

From beneath the magnificent Humber Bridge, this walk is a there and back walk on the tracks above the River Humber and beside the railway line. Passing the remains of a bronze age ferryboat, and then a lovely cafe at the halfway stage (featuring llamas!), this is a classic walk and a great way to spend a sunny afternoon.

General Safety Tips: 

Take care on the road at the start of the walk. Wear sturdy for the short rocky walk at the beginning of the walk.

                                                                The Humber Estuary Walk 

Getting There

Parking at the Humber Bridge Country Park is free of charge with plenty of parking spaces. Use the post code HU13 0HB on your Sat Nav.

                                                    Maps of The Humber Estuary walk

The Walk

From the car park head past the information board and cafe and follow the Humber Bridge Country Park sign. 

Cross a cycle path and turn left on the path ahead.

Follow the path into some trees and at a fork in the path take the right path.

Look for some steps down on your right and keep ahead after you descend the steps.

Go through some tunnels and then arrive at the black brick tower Black Mill.

A few steps ahead is the magnificent Humber Suspension Bridge - it really is a marvel of engineering!

Follow the road to your right taking care to look out for traffic and pass the Country Park sign.

Look for some steps down onto the rocks and pebbles and walk ahead passing the Country Park.

Leave the beach shortly after a Yorkshire Wold signpost. 

Follow the path beside the railway with great views of the Humber Bridge behind you.

When you come to a fork in the path keep left onto a grassier path.

Soon you arrive at the remains of a bronze age ferryboat which is another interesting feature on this walk. 

Head down the path after the ferry boat remains and turn right at the end of the path.

Pass some reeds and a marshland on your left, then in the village turn right again signposted to the Riverside Cafe.

Turn right again and pass a lovely little cafe with llamas! A great place for a pitstop.

From the cafe head back to the bronze age ferry boat and then left back on the route you walked on back to the beginning!

Humber Bridge

The Humber Bridge, near Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, is a 2.22 km (2,430 yd; 7,300 ft; 1.38 mi) single-span road suspension bridge, which opened to traffic on 24 June 1981. When it opened, the bridge was the longest of its type in the world; it was not surpassed until 1998, with the completion of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, and is now the twelfth-longest.

Ouse), between Barton-upon-Humber on the south bank and Hessle on the north bank, connecting the East Riding of Yorkshire with North Lincolnshire. Both sides of the bridge were in the non-metropolitan county of Humberside until its dissolution in 1996. The bridge can be seen for miles around, from as far as Patrington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and from out to sea miles off the coast. It is a Grade I listed building.

By 2006, the bridge carried an average of 120,000 vehicles per week. The toll was £3.00 each way for cars (higher for commercial vehicles), which made it the most expensive toll crossing in the United Kingdom. In April 2012, the toll was halved to £1.50 each way after the UK government deferred £150 million from the bridge's outstanding debt.

Before the bridge, commuters crossed the Humber on the Humber Ferry from Corporation Pier at Hull and New Holland Pier at New Holland, Lincolnshire, or by road via the M62 (from 1976), M18 (from 1979) and M180 motorways, crossing, by way of the Ouse Bridge, the River Ouse near Goole (connected to the Humber). Until the mid-1970s the route south was via the single-carriageway A63 and the A614 (via grid-locked Thorne) where it met the busy A18 and crossed the Stainforth and Keadby Canal at Keadby Bridge, a swing bridge, which formed a bottleneck on the route, and on through Finningley and Bawtry, meeting the east–west A631.

The journey was along straight single-carriageway roads across foggy moors interrupted by bottlenecks for most of the journey to Blyth, Nottinghamshire, where it met the A1, and the accident rate was high. Debates in Parliament were held on the low standard of the route across the windswept plains around Goole. It was not unexpected that under these conditions, a Humber Bridge, with connecting dual-carriageway approach roads and grade-separated junctions, would seem worthwhile. By the time the bridge opened, much of this inferior route had been transformed by dualling of the A63 and its bypasses, extending the M62 and the connecting of the M18 from Thorne to Wadworth. The obvious need for a Humber Bridge had been reduced by the late 1970s with the improvements of the motorway infrastructure in the region. Although welcome, these improvements detracted from the need for vehicles to cross a bridge from Hessle to Barton. The Humber Bridge was a victim of the success of the M62 before it opened. A hovercraft service, Minerva and Mercury, linked Hull Pier and Grimsby Docks from February to October 1969 but suffered relatively frequent breakdowns.