Helmsley Circular Route

A circular loop of 3.6 miles (5.8 km) total, not an out-and-back, so the figure is the whole walk back to where you started. Allow around 1 hour 25 minutes at a steady pace, longer if you stop to watch the water.

From the junction of Ryegate and Sawmill Lane in Helmsley, follow Sawmill Lane and the Ebor Way down to the River Rye. The path runs along the north bank through a mix of shaded woodland and open floodplain, passes a fish farm, then crosses a footbridge. The return leg follows the south bank through beech woodland and a pasture field to Helmsley Bridge and back into town.

Easy by any normal measure, with only a handful of metres of ascent across the whole loop. Expect:

It is a gentle walk, but it is not a surfaced or step-free route, so plan accordingly if you need even ground throughout.

• Riverside and woodland paths, plus short sections of access road at either end
• A kissing gate, a footbridge and one field with livestock potential
• Ground that can be soft or muddy on the floodplain after wet spells, so boots or sturdy shoes are sensible

This is a walk about the river itself: gravel bars, eroding and rebuilding banks, side channels and the wooded edges that hold it all together. Keep an eye out for herons, dippers, kingfishers, sand martins and, with real luck and patience, otters. Nothing is guaranteed, so treat sightings as a bonus rather than the reason to come.

The route starts at the Ryegate and Sawmill Lane junction in Helmsley. The most reliable place to leave a car is the Cleveland Way Car Park in Helmsley, a short walk from both the town centre and the route start. It is a pay-and-display public car park.

Dogs are welcome on the public rights of way here, with a few rules that always apply:

• Keep dogs under control and stay on rights of way where that is required
• Use a lead shorter than 2 m from 1 March to 31 July to protect ground-nesting birds
• Keep dogs on a short lead near livestock, which matters in the pasture field on the return leg

The loop is short and low-lying, so there are no big views or summits, and the two banks cover similar ground rather than offering contrasting halves. Floodplain mud and the pasture field are the main practical annoyances. If you want a longer and more scenic day from the same town, the walk from Helmsley towards Rievaulx is the bigger outing, but it is a different and much more demanding proposition.