Sutton Bank, Kilburn White Horse and Gormire Lake

An 8.4-mile circuit starting and finishing at Sutton Bank National Park Centre car park, linking open escarpment walking with the Kilburn White Horse, wooded Gormire Lake, farmland and a ridge return. Allow 4 to 4.5 hours and treat it as moderate to hard (6/10): the distance is manageable, but steep steps, several sharp climbs and soft ground do the damage.

• Cross the A170 from the car park and head south along the Cleveland Way on the escarpment edge, with views out over the Vale of York and Vale of Mowbray.
• Pass above the Kilburn White Horse, the largest and most northerly of the English white horse hill figures. The path along the top gives little sense of the figure itself; the better look comes from the lower ground near the White Horse car park.
• Take the steep steps down to that lower car park, then follow public paths and lanes around Hood Hill and Gormire Farm.
• Reach Gormire Lake, a natural lowland lake sitting quietly in woodland below Whitestone Cliff, then continue north through the Southwoods area.
• Climb back up to the ridge and return along the Cleveland Way to Sutton Bank, crossing the A170 again at the end.

The escarpment sections are firm and easy underfoot. The rest is not: expect steep steps and descents, roughly a thousand feet of cumulative ascent spread over several short climbs, field paths and woodland and farm tracks that hold mud for much of the year. Boots with grip, not trainers. Carry all your water, since there is no reliable source on the route.

Start at Sutton Bank National Park Centre car park, Sutton Bank, Thirsk YO7 2EH, where there are toilets, refreshments and visitor information. The A170 crossing at the start and return needs care with fast traffic. The car park fills on sunny weekends and during school holidays, so an early start helps.

• The cliff edge is unfenced in places. Keep children close and stay back from the lip.
• The Yorkshire Gliding Club airfield borders the ridge section. Never walk onto the landing area: gliders approach almost silently.
• Expect livestock in fields and ground-nesting birds on open ground.

Ordinary dogs are fine on this public rights of way route, but this is working land. Keep dogs on a lead near the unfenced edge, around the gliding area and anywhere livestock is present, and stay on rights of way across moorland. Park guidance asks for a short lead under 2 metres from 1 March to 31 July on moorland and near farm animals, which covers most of the walking season here.

The views and variety are genuinely good, but the lower paths and repeated climbs are the friction, and the White Horse is anticlimactic from directly above. If you want the escarpment and the horse without the mud and ascent, a much shorter Sutton Bank and White Horse walk of under two miles covers the same clifftop viewpoint on hard compacted path and skips Gormire Lake entirely.