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We enjoyed an excellent walk from Horsehouse to Carlton in Coverdale in March 2025, noting how quiet this lovely dale is in comparison to many of the others we have walked. That first impression is confirmed by this return visit where we explore the banks of the river Cover at Middleham, slightly downstream of our last visit – quite close in fact to the point where Coverdale and Wensleydale meet. Middleham claims to be the smallest town in Yorkshire, but it is a giant in the world of horse racing with its 15 professional stables earning it the nickname ‘The Newmarket of the North’.
As well as providing a particularly lovely riverside walk, this route, starting in Middleham, gives us much else of interest – Splendid Georgian architecture, all the horse racing infrastructure around the town, two (or perhaps 3) castles, a particularly lovely church and many good options for refreshment in the town centre. All with ample parking and well maintained toilets. Perfect.
Step-by-Step
We start in the town centre of Middleham, parking on the cobbled marketplace – there are no formal parking charges, but there are honesty boxes, with a suggested £2 fee – very reasonable.
It is worth starting the walk by wandering around the town square and enjoying the impressive Georgian architecture and a handful of buildings that predate 1600. In 1607 Middleham was important enough to house a royal court for residents of the Forest of Wensleydale. Middleham and surrounding lands were part of the Crown estates from the accession of Richard III until Charles I sold the manor to the City of London in about 1628. In 1661 the City of London sold Middleham Manor on to Thomas Wood of Littleton, and it has remained in private hands since then. Although the town is not the hub for livestock sales that it once was, it is still a busy and attractive place. And a great base for walking.
To read more about Middleham, click . . .
- Here for a yorkshiredales.org page
- Here for a Wikipedia page
- Here for a yorkshire.com page
- Here for the Town Council’s website
We initially walk up the hill from the marketplace heading along the Coverham road – following signs for The Forbidden Corner, a unique labyrinth of tunnels, chambers, follies and surprises created within a four acre garden in the heart of Tupgill Park – we don’t visit the Forbidden Corner during our walk, but the consensus amongst the group members who have visited is that it is well worth the trip, particularly if you have children.
We keep our eyes open for the Castle Keep Tearooms on the left and take the alley that runs beside them and up to the castle. Once we arrive at the corner of the castle, we see a lane continuing in much the same direction as the alley along the side of the tearooms – this is our route out of town, and it gives us a great view of the Eastern side of the castle. In fact, we should really refer to this impressive structure as Middleham Castle 2 – as there is an older one to be found toward the end of our walk.
Middleham Castle was built by Robert Fitzrandolph, 3rd Lord of Middleham and Spennithorne, with work starting in 1190. The castle was the childhood home of King Richard III, although he spent very little of his reign there. The original function of the castle was to defend the road from Richmond to Skipton, though some have suggested the site of the earlier castle was far better to achieve this than the later location.
After the death of King Richard III the castle remained in royal hands until it was abandoned in the 17th century. Many of the stones from the castle were used in other buildings in the village of Middleham. Such recycling of building materials was once very common, creating an impression that many of these ancient structures were destroyed in battle or have simply fallen into disrepair. In order to prevent further decay, the ruins are now in the care of English Heritage who took them on in 1984. Unsurprisingly, they are now Grade I listed.
We continue up the lane at the east of the castle until we arrive at a gate where we enter a field, and at this point we have a choice of paths. Straight on (i.e. south) is the Six Dales Trail, this intersects with our route later on so, if you are short of either time or energy you could shorten the route by using this as a shortcut. For the full experience, head left – the path marked on the OS map heads diagonally across the field, but we opted to protect the pasture and walk around the outside of the field – which has the advantage of offering good views across the Ure valley to Burton Park.
To find out more about the Six Dales trail, click . . .
At the diagonal corner of the field, the path continues through three more fields getting ever closer to the river Cover, until just before the boundary of the third field we see a track heading downhill toward stepping stones in the river.
We don’t use those stepping stones today – instead we cross the river further upstream, at Hullo Bridge, but this is a nice place to pause and a popular picnic destination in the summer.
For the next 800m we follow the river upstream – now on the Six Dales Trail – some of that path is through woodland, which in parts is quite steep sided, so take care when the ground is wet. Halfway along this section the path returns to the river’s edge and there is a fallen tree which provides a great resting place to enjoy a brief coffee break.
We press on, still following the roundels for the Six Dales Trail, until we see the path rising steeply and heading away from the river. This is necessary because the northern bank of the river for the next 400m, at Cover Banks is too steep for a safe path.
At the top of the path uphill and away from the river, we see the Six Dales Trail continuing back to Middleham – this is the potential shortcut that we mentioned earlier. We keep left here and follow around the top of the woodland above the steep riverside section until we find a gate where the path continues through a broad pasture heading slightly downhill and back toward the river.
Over the next 500m or so we get closer and closer to the Cover and eventually meet an old stone bridge where we cross – this is Hullo Bridge.
Once on the south side of the river we are in a National Trust property called Braithwaite Hall. This is a 17th century tenanted farmhouse, and a particularly fine building. The hall, sitting room and carved staircase are open to visitors in June, July and August, but only by arrangement in advance with the tenant, so phone or email in advance if you want to add that to your walk.
Right next to the National Trust sign is a fingerpost offering us three routes: There is a path to East Witton which looks tempting and which we may come back to another day. Or there are two paths signed as Braithwaite Lane. It does not really make any difference which of these you take, as one curves right, the other left before they come back together at Braithwaite Lane in front of Braithwaite Hall – we opted to go right.
Once at the road we have a good view of the front of the Hall – you may find yourself thinking this would be a great place to stay – and your wish can come true as it offers 5 star bed and breakfast accommodation.
The name Braithwaite is of Scandinavian origin meaning “broad clearing” – a reminder that much of this area was well wooded up to the medieval period. This land was once a forest and supplied firewood to neighbouring Middleham Castle. Just 250m south of the Hall on Braithwaite Hill is an iron age fort whose remains can still be seen. Hence our claim that this is a three castle walk.
Our onward route is to the right, to walk along the road for 1000m until we get to a T junction between the tiny road we are on and an equally small road that re-crosses the Cover at Coverham Bridge. Both these roads are very lightly used, which makes one wonder why so much signage is required.
We go right here and cross the bridge, originally built to provide access to Coverham Abbey. Just beyond the bridge we see the road head sharp left – and we take the track to the right – this leads directly to Coverham Abbey, although it is not a public right of way, so if you want to see the ruins of this 12th century Premonstratensian monastery, we recommend a route from Hullo Bridge.

Just to the left of the Locked gates to the Abbey we notice a cast iron pedestrian gate which accesses a steep path up to Holy Trinity church passing an impressive waterfall.
The church is now redundant – meaning that it is no longer routinely used for Christian worship. It is not uncared for however, as the Churches Conservation Trust and the Friends of Coverham Church work together to maintain and use this lovely building. The interior is generally open to visitors and is well worth seeing – there is a donations box to the right of the entrance door – please give generously to help preserve this wonderful asset.
To read more about Holy Trinity, click . . .
Within the graveyard there are a number of graves that indicate the long established connection between this area and the horse racing industry: several cite Newmarket as the origin of the occupants.
A jockey called John Osborne is commemorated – his nickname was “the Bank of England” because he was such a safe bet, and there is a grave for 19 year old jockey, Benjamin Thompson, featuring a particularly fine horse carving. Next to this is the grave of James Fieldhouse who was killed by lightning, together with his horse. Having a cause of death indicated on a gravestone is unusual, but perhaps not as unusual as a grave dug by the occupant – we were unable to find this one, but it is well documented that such a gravestone exists within this extensive site.
To finish the walk we head out of the church via the Lych gate, and follow the road to the left for 200m, looking for a track on the right signposted for Tupgill. We follow this well-kept path uphill to a memorial bench and then see a stile just to the left which takes the path diagonally across the field to a gate into woodland. There were horses in this field when we visited – they were very friendly but take care if you are walking a dog.
The path continues opposite and as we exit the (very small) woodland we have a choice of paths. We could stay to the left hand edge of the field, or we could head to a point halfway along the opposite boundary where there is a gate – we chose this option. Please walk in single file here to protect the meadow.
As we get to the gate we note a lane with a stile opposite; we take the stile and find ourselves on a manicured lawn next to an impressive ornamental pond, which is part of the Tupgill Park estate – as is the Forbidden Corner to which we are now very close.
Our path bears right to pass the top of the pond and then joins a track heading uphill along the edge of the woodland, and after 100m or so we arrive at a T-junction with a larger lane where we joint the gallops at Middleham Low Moor, heading right.
Middleham Low and High Moors (which we would see if we had turned left) are two areas of common land designated for the training of racehorses so don’t be surprised to see horses in full flight. This typically happens in the mornings but can be at any time – so keep dogs on leads at all times. We follow the clear track with a wall to the right for a good while now, heading back toward Middleham. We pass a pond on our right, known as Pinkers Pond, before the track comes back to the road out of Middleham. We cross and continue along the track used by the horses which runs parallel to the road until after 500m we find a stile taking us back into fields.
If we look to the right here, we see a mound, and this is the site of the earlier Motte and Bailey castle, known as William’s Hill, which was built early in the reign of William Rufus (circa 1090 AD). The enclosure is about 50m by 35m, and it is 12m in height. It is defended by a ditch 6m wide with banks 3m deep. A platform on the northwest end of the enclosure is believed be the site of a wooden tower, whilst the site of a small bailey to the southeast is disputed by archaeologists.
Our path continues to a squeeze stile onto the lane we used to pass the later castle right at the start of the day, and from here we simply reverse our route from earlier to get back to the cars.
Bentham Footpath Group walks are graded according to distance and elevation change. At just a little bit more than our 12km threshold this is a “moderate” walk. There are no particular challanges however, so if you usually prefer our easy walks, don’t necessarily dismiss this one.