Howardian Hills Road Bike Ride

This ride is centred on the Howardian Hills AONB, but starts and finishes in York.

Castle Howard represents an opportunity for a café stop, or Malton Market Place if you prefer. You pass the beautiful ruins of Kirkham Priory on the way back towards York.

Howardian Hills Road Bike Ride: Trip Overview

Distance: 111km/69miles
Difficulty: medium
Duration: 4 to 7h
Hills: Yearsley Moor; Oswaldkirk Bank; Slingsby Bank; Hepton Hill
Stops: Castle Howard or Malton

Howardian Hills Road Bike Ride: Map and GPS

The map above shows the route of the Howardian Hills road bike ride.

GPS files for the Howardian Hills are available to download from Plotaroute. See the Howardian Hills on Plotaroute.

Howardian Hills Road Bike Ride: Route Notes

The ride starts from Rawcliffe Bar and heads to Wiggington and Strensall. This avoids less cycle-friendly routes north out of York.

Leaving Strensall, turn left on Pottery Lane. This is the start of a section of the ride on delightful quiet country lanes, where you could see wildlife including hares, lapwings, and barn owls.

You reach Brandsby, then climb to Yearsley (the Yearsley Moor climb). Next, it's downhill towards Ampleforth.

Turn right at a T-junction in Ampleforth, pass the Abbey and College, and continue to Oswaldkirk. At the end of the village, climb Oswaldkirk Bank, then turn right on the B1257. After a short distance, turn left to Nunnington.

There's now a stretch on quiet, flat country lanes in Ryedale.

At Slingsby, cross the B1257 to head up Slingsby Bank towards Castle Howard. You can go into the courtyard and visit the Courtyard Café without paying an entrance fee.

Next the route is via Coneysthorpe up Hepton Hill towards Malton. Malton Market Place is an alternative coffee stop option.

Cross the Derwent in Malton to Norton-on-Derwent, and head south. After Whitewall Corner, there's a quarry on the left; turn right towards Menethorpe. Wend your way to Kirkham Priory, on the river Derwent.

Pass the priory, cross the river, and use the level crossing of the railway before climbing through Oak Cliffe Wood. At a crossroads, turn left towards Crambe. There's another level crossing, then the road nears the Derwent again, on the opposite bank to Howsham Mill.

At the next junction, there's a left-right dogleg to continue to Bossall.

From Bossall, continue to Sand Hutton, do a short stretch on a path alongside the A64, then take Sandy Lane through Stockton-on-the-Forest.

When you reach the A1036 at Heworth Green, turn left straight after Mill Lane to go down to the Foss Islands Cycle Route, part of York's Orbital route.

Stay on the Orbital route anti-clockwise until Water End in Clifton, then join the path that heads north west across Clifton Ings back towards the start/finish point at Rawcliffe Bar.

This ride features in the book Bike Rides In and Around York.