The A170 up Sutton Bank reopened to traffic on Sunday 4 October, on schedule, after three weeks shut for maintenance. The top of the bank is a short drive from Thirsk again: the escarpment James Herriot called the finest view in England, and the Kilburn White Horse a mile and a half along the edge.
Checked 5 October 2026 against North Yorkshire Council's announcement. We're at 87 Market Place, and Sutton Bank is about fifteen minutes' drive east of us.
What was done while it was shut
The council closed the climb from 13 September to carry out routine work on the rock face and improve the drainage, and in the last stage of the work it laid a new road surface and replaced the road markings. The bank has a one-in-four gradient and carries about 130,000 vehicles a year, which is why it needs the work every year. The contractors also found natural springs that supply two houses along the route, and changed the drainage design to protect them.
Going up again
The view is the reason to go, and it costs nothing: the escarpment is open at all times. The National Park Centre at the top keeps shorter hours through the winter, so check the Sutton Bank page for its times before a late-afternoon trip.
We link Sutton Bank as the afternoon half of a few days out, so if you found your way here from a James Herriot day or race day at Thirsk, that part of the plan works again. The day planner will fit it around the rest of your day.
On foot from the square
If you would rather stay on foot, these are the three we suggested during the closure, and all of them start from our door.
The blue plaque trail. Eighteen stops make up the town circuit, free and outdoors, with three more in Sowerby including the new James Herriot plaque. The town-centre section takes about an hour and a quarter. We wrote up six stories worth stopping for, from the man who founded Lord's to the nurse who left for Uruguay in 1882.
The Cod Beck riverside walk. Two minutes from the square down Millgate, flat the whole way, free. The full town loop is two to three miles and takes about an hour. It can flood after heavy rain, so check conditions before committing to the full loop.
Sowerby Flatts and Pudding Pie Hill. A Victorian lime avenue, an open water meadow and an Anglo-Saxon burial mound you can climb, twenty to thirty minutes' walk from our door. No facilities past Sowerby, so fill a bottle before you leave the square.
When it closes again
The council calls this an annual maintenance programme, so expect the climb to shut for a few weeks again in a future year. When the next dates are announced we will put them here.
Where we fit
Down the bank and back into Thirsk in a quarter of an hour, which makes us the lunch or the cream tea either side of the view. The menu is on the site, and if there are six or more of you, book a table.
