Ledsham - Fairburn Walk

Ledsham Church

Today the Mother and I braved the cold and did the circular walk from the village of Ledsham to Fairburn Ings and back again. Both villages are close to the A1(M) and about 40mins drive from York city centre. Of the two Ledsham is definitely more picturesque with its lovely old limestone houses and 8th century church and a pub called 'Chequers' which has a convenient car park. Fairburn is home to the RSPB reserve Fairburn Ings, which comprises of several lakes formed by mining activity in the area over the past 150 years. The RSPB centre also has a car park which is ideal for this walk but parking costs £2 unless you are an RSPB member. Anyway, on with walk...

View back towards Ledsham

 We started the walk in Ledsham, leaving the road on Holyrood Lane and following the public footpath signs. There is a 'trail' of 18 geocaches on this circular footpath and we were using the directions for them to guide us, but if that's not your cup of tea the route is well signposted and it's also marked on OS Explorer map no. 289. Along this path you walk across a combination of open fields and woodlands, and although it's not the most picturesque place it has that sense of calm one associates with past times when the pace of life was slower. There are a few different routes of this part of the walk but they're not too far apart and they all seem to lead to Fairburn. This section of the walk is called the 'Hills and Hollers' and you can see why when you walk it. A piece of local trivia I learnt after completing the walk is that before Fairburn had a church the dead of that village were brought to Ledsham for burial. The coffin was carried along the hills and hollers route by hand, rather an ordeal I would imagine given the gradient at times. (Bit more info about 'Corpse route': http://fairburnvillage.co.uk/newpages/corpswalk.html)

Fairburn Ings

 Once you reach Fairburn village you join the road on Caudle Hill and turn left and walk straight until you reach Cut Road on the right hand side. Following this road leads you down to the Ings and you turn right just before the river Aire and up hill then follow the path between the Ings and the river. Along this path there are several hides and benches so it's a good place to stop for a break or a spot of lunch on a nice day. There wasn't much visible bird life this afternoon, but there were people planting willows from a boat on the lake, so that might have disturbed them I suppose. 

Footpath Above the Ings

 After you leave these woods you walk across one of the slag heaps left from the mining days and from these you head down towards the RSPB visitor centre. At the bottom of the slag heap hill there isan excellent place to spot kingfishers, according the the RSPB. You can't miss it, there's wooden screens with holes cut in it to spy through. After this you turn left and go through a kissing gate and take the first right to get to the visitor centre. The Ings is worth a day out itself, there's plenty to do and (big surprise) loads of birds to see that you wouldn't spot in your back garden. While we were sat drinking a coffee we spotted Great Tits, Blue Tits, Willow/Marsh Tits (can't tell the difference), Long Tailed Tits, Robins, and a couple of Pheasants. The RSPB website has plenty of information on the Ings, see here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/f/fairburnings/  (very amused that it looks like Fair Burnings)

Ings again

 So, from the visitor centre you walk through the car park and cross the road, through the little field and across the other road. From here you just follow the footpath through the woods until you reach Ledsham again. We were coming down here a little later than planned so we got to see this lovely 'pre-sunset'.

Sun going down over the fields

 When I did this walk in September no special footwear was needed, but doing it again in February was a different matter. At some points it was more like traversing a bog than a footpath, but it added to the fun (more so because the Mother's walking poles kept getting stuck). Given the number of stiles along the way, and the condition of the footpath I wouldn't recommend it for pushchairs or anyone who isn't sure on their feet. Walking at a moderate pace, and if you don't stop too long at the visitor centre, it takes about 3hrs to do the full circuit. It took us about 3 and a half hours because we were stopped to look for geocaches and we got waylaid by a talkative RSPB volunteer at the visitor centre.

The AA have this handy-dandy guide to the route, which is a lot clearer than mine (but the pictures aren't as pretty :p): http://www.theaa.com/walks/fairburn-ings-and-ledsham-421268