Sowerby Flatts and Pudding Pie Hill

Sowerby joined onto Thirsk long ago but it has kept its own character, and the walk out to it is the best flat hour anyone can take from the Market Place. Front Street runs under a formal avenue of lime trees, planted in 1887 for Queen Victoria's golden jubilee, with Georgian brick houses set back on either side. Past the village the ground opens into Sowerby Flatts, a water meadow left as public open space because the beck reclaims it every few winters.

The surprise comes at the far end. Pudding Pie Hill is a round barrow standing in a field, a prehistoric burial mound reused centuries later for Anglo-Saxon burials, and a scheduled ancient monument. From the top you can see the Hambleton Hills, and you are standing on several thousand years of somebody else's history.

From Tea Time Cafe at 87 Market Place, head south out of the square and follow the road towards Sowerby. The lime avenue on Front Street starts about twelve minutes from our door and the walking is flat and easy the whole way, on pavement, with the beck running parallel on your left.

Keep going through the village and the paths lead out onto the Flatts and towards the barrow, twenty to thirty minutes from the square depending on pace. Locals walk it as a circuit of roughly three miles, signposted as one of Ted's Walks, taking in the avenue, the fields and the beck before returning through town. No car is needed at any point, and no part of it involves a climb.

Walk the avenue end to end first, because it is the formal, tidy half of the route and it sets up the contrast with what follows. Then cross onto the Flatts, where in summer you will find dog walkers, an impromptu football match and half of Thirsk lying on the grass.

Head east for Pudding Pie Hill, which children always want to charge up and which repays five minutes of standing still at the top. Come back along the beck to close the loop. Add a detour to the churchyard in Sowerby if you like a quiet corner, or turn the walk into a longer riverside circuit by picking up the Cod Beck path back into town.

The lime avenue is the set piece, particularly in late spring when the trees come into leaf and in October when they turn. The Flatts give you a wide open horizon within twenty minutes of a market square, which is unusual. The barrow adds a piece of proper archaeology to what is otherwise a gentle stroll, and it makes the walk work for children who need a destination rather than a view. The whole thing is flat, free and reliably quiet.

Boots after rain. The Flatts flood, which is precisely why nobody ever built on them, so the meadow section can be heavy going from November through to spring while the avenue itself stays fine in ordinary shoes. There are no facilities past Sowerby, so use the loos before you leave and carry water. Dogs go on leads across the grazed ground. If the forecast turns while you are out, the town centre is twenty minutes behind you and the museums on Kirkgate are the obvious dry alternative. Finish back at the square rather than starting there, and the walk ends with cake.