Plan a day in Thirsk · 11 places
Walks from Thirsk market square
Flat riverside loops you can do in an hour, a lime avenue out to Sowerby, and the cliff-top paths above Sutton Bank when you want a view. Every one of these starts within a short walk or drive of our door.
1Cod Beck riverside walk
2 min walk · Thirsk on foot
The stream that made Thirsk, with a flat two to three mile riverside loop you can pick up two minutes from the square
Free · allow about 1 hours
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2The Holmes
5 min walk · Thirsk on foot
The riverside green on Cod Beck where Thirsk goes to sit on the grass, five minutes from the square
Free · allow about 45 minutes
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3Sowerby Flatts and Pudding Pie Hill
20 min walk · Thirsk on foot
A Victorian lime avenue, an open water meadow and an Anglo-Saxon barrow, all on a flat circuit of two to three miles from the square
Free · allow about 1.5 hours
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Countryside illustration4Sutton Bank and the White Horse
15 min drive · Short drive
The escarpment James Herriot called the finest view in England, with the Kilburn White Horse a mile and a half along the edge
Centre free to enter; parking 3.90 for up to two hours... · allow about 2.5 hours
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Brimham Rocks
40 min drive · Worth the day
Millstone grit weathered into stacks, arches and balancing boulders across 400 acres of open moorland above Nidderdale. Free to walk, with parking the only charge
Free to get in · allow about 2.5 hours
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Aysgarth Falls
60 min drive · Worth the day
A three-tiered limestone waterfall on the River Ure in Wensleydale, free to visit and best after heavy rain
Nothing to pay to see the falls, at any hour of any day · allow about 2 hours
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7The Seven Bridges walk
12 min walk · Thirsk on foot
The little wooded path that carries on past the weir, crossing and recrossing a stream on a string of small footbridges
Free · allow about 45 minutes
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The South Kilvington field path
15 min walk · Thirsk on foot
An unnamed run of field paths and old lanes between Thirsk and South Kilvington, hidden behind the hedge from the A19
Free · allow about 1.3 hours
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Woodland Lakes Fishery
6 min drive · Short drive
Around forty five acres of coarse fishing lakes at Carlton Miniott, open to anyone with a day ticket and a rod licence
Day tickets for two rods, with a lower concession rate,... · allow about 5 hours
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Cod Beck Reservoir
25 min drive · Short drive
A mile and a half circuit round the head of the same beck that runs through Thirsk, at the western start of the Lyke Wake Walk
Free, and the car parks are free too · allow about 1.5 hours
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Ripon Canal
30 min drive · Worth the day
A restored two-mile canal to the northern edge of England's connected waterways, with a walk-up trip boat and a bittern reserve on the bank
Free to walk the towpath, and parking at the basin is... · allow about 2 hours
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More ideas
Other ways to spend the day
The great abbey ruins near Thirsk
Six monastic ruins within an hour or so of the market square, and no two of them run the same way.
Things to do near Thirsk with children
Animals to feed, a vet's surgery children can play in, birds of prey flying twice a day, and enough open grass to let everyone off the lead.
Historic places near Thirsk
Two of the finest ruined abbeys in the country are within half an hour, and the town itself holds a 1940s vet's surgery, a Perpendicular church begun around 1430 and the birthplace of the man Lord's cricket ground is named after..
What to do in Thirsk when it rains
Yorkshire being Yorkshire, this is the list people actually need.
Dog-friendly days out from Thirsk
Riverside walks, market-square mornings and a ride on the moors railway, where dogs travel for 3 pounds.
Every one of these starts or finishes well at Tea Time Cafe, 87 Market Place. Build a plan with walk times and print it for the day.