Pudding Pie Hill ~ Easy Walk

Distance Covered: 3 miles Time to Complete Walk 1.5 hours

Suitable for dog walking: Yes

Pudding Pie Hill is an burial mound just outside Thirsk with connections to fairies- apparently if you carry out a ritual of running around it three times and then sticking a knife at the top you will hear the fairies talking!. This is a nice walk for a day out it in Thirsk which is famous for being the home town of James Herriot the author of All Creatures Great and Small.

General Safety Tips: The path towards Pudding Pie Hill can get muddy after rain. Take care on short road walk back from the hill.

The Pudding Pie Hill walk

Getting There

From Middlesbrough head down the A19 and head off on the Thirsk turn off. Head through Thirsk and before the market place head right and then turn left into the Millgate Car Park on Marage Road. Parking is £4.30 for three hours.

Maps of the Pudding Pie Hill Walk

The Walk

From the car park head left and right cross over the road to Riverside Mews

Head towards the Little 3 pub and head through its car park to emerge onto Finkle Street

Turn left and then head down the first right turn off to Nursery Gardens. Head through the car park to a signpost to the Leisure Centre

Go through the gap and head left to the Leisure Centre

Head past the Leisure Centre onto a path and turn left and head down the path

At the end of the path turn left and head into Sowerby.

Pass by St Oswalds Church which is great for a pitstop to take photos

When you come to a junction cross over the road to the right near the Crown and Anchor pub and head down the street

Ignoring the fist left turn off turn left at the second one and head down the track.

Head down the field edge until you come to a pig farm. Turn right and then left onto a narrow track

Passing caravans on your right turn left when you come to a road.

Head down the road which bends to the left and head towards the end of the row of houses

When you come to the house named Worlds End, double back and follow the grassy track through a kissing gate.

Go over the pack horse bridge and cross over the road and go through a kissing gate

Head left on a grassy path which skirts the riverside and head through another kissing gate

Soon you can see Pudding Pie Hill and there is an information board with further details soon ahead.

Head through the gate onto a road and turn left 

Turn left over a bridge and then keep right ahead

Turn right at the junction and head back to the car park retracing your steps

Pudding Pie Hill

Sowerby is a village, electoral ward and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England immediately south of the neighbouring market town of Thirsk. Although the boundary between the two parishes runs very close to Thirsk town centre, the village retains its own identity and has a separate Parish Council. The author James Herriot lived in the village.

An artificial mound known as Pudding Pie Hill is on the east bank of Cod Beck, just off Blakey Lane. This was partially excavated in 1855 (by Lady Frankland Russell) and was found to be a sepulchral tumulus of a type known as a bowl barrow. The remains of a Saxon warrior and two other skeletons were discovered, along with cremated bones, various artefacts and coins.

In the south of the parish at Blakey Lane, Cod Beck is crossed by Blakey Bridge, a 17th-century cart or packhorse bridge and Grade II listed building.Further south, Cod Beck is crossed again on South Moor Lane by Town End Bridge, another 17th-century packhorse bridge, also Grade II Listed.