Walking East Yorkshire Festival: 23 Beverley walks

The Walking East Yorkshire Festival runs from Saturday 12 to Sunday 20 September, and Beverley has more of it than anywhere else in the district. We counted 23 guided walks and tours inside the town, plus five led cycle rides. Nineteen of the 23 are free.

Three have already gone. Two free walks and one of the paid Minster tower climbs were showing as sold out when we checked the booking pages on 30 August.

The council announced the festival on 24 August. Its release names the festival’s 16th year, says it is administered by Visit East Yorkshire and delivered with the council, and picks out a handful of walks, but it does not say how many there are, when any of them start, or what they cost. (East Riding of Yorkshire Council) We went through the festival’s own listings on 30 August and counted 70 entries: 65 with a single fixed date, plus five that run across the whole nine days or are self guided. (Walking East Yorkshire Festival programme)

Which days are busy

Tuesday 15 September is the day to be in Beverley. Seven of the town’s entries fall on it, more than on any other day, and they run from a cemetery tour at 10am to a ghost walk that finishes at half past nine at night.

Every Beverley walk, day by day

Prices and availability below were taken from each walk’s own booking page on 30 August. Free does not mean turn up: almost all of them still need a ticket, and the free ones close their bookings the day before.

Two of those are worth singling out.

The Minster tower walk is the one that will sell out. It is a climb of around 100 spiral steps halfway up the west towers, past the clock mechanism and up to the tympanum above the great west doors to see the workmen’s graffiti, followed by a guided tour of the medieval quire. It costs £15 and runs three times. When we checked the box office on 30 August, the Monday 14 September session had seven places left, the Tuesday 15 September session had three, and Thursday 17 September was sold out. (TryBooking, Beverley Minster) No open toes or flip flops, for the climb.

The ghost walk is the only Beverley event with an evening finish and a box office. It is £5 a head, starts on Cross Street at 7.30pm on Tuesday 15 September, and is sold through Bridlington Spa rather than Eventbrite. (Bridlington Spa)

The five cycle rides all leave from East Riding Leisure Beverley on Flemingate and are run by the Breeze women’s rides: 10 flat miles to the Green Willow Cafe at Dunswell on 12, 15 and 17 September, 10 miles with two hills to Walkington on 19 September, and 20 miles to Brandesburton on 20 September, at a steadier 10mph average. They book through letsride.co.uk.

Worth travelling for

The rest of the district holds 37 of the fixed-date events. These are the ones with something specific attached:

• Boots and Beer, Thursday 17 September, 10.30am. Eight miles through Camp Dale, Raven Dale, Lang Dale and North Dale, including a stretch of the Yorkshire Wolds Way, ending with Wold Top beers and a savoury buffet at the brewery at Hunmanby Grange. £15, and you state a vegetarian, vegan or gluten free option when you book. (listing)
• Spurn Point Stride, Thursday 17 September, 10am to 4pm. Seven miles along the peninsula with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, stopping at the lighthouse for a packed lunch. The walk is free, but there is a £5 car parking charge at Spurn, paid in the cafe. (listing)
• Seaways supper walk, Tuesday 15 September, from 3.30pm at Fridaythorpe. Six miles of tracks, green lanes and footpaths, suitable for mountain trike users, with a pie and peas supper at about 6pm. £10. (listing)
• Walk the Wold Rangers Way, Monday 14 to Friday 18 September. The full 44 mile circular trail over four days, nine to 12.5 miles a day. £20. (listing)
• Bempton coastal dusk walk with the RSPB, Thursday 17 September, 5.30pm. Two miles on the cliffs looking for migrating thrushes, goldcrests and warblers and the last of the gannets. The visitor centre shuts at 5pm and the cafe at 4.15pm, so arrive early if you want either. (listing)
• Tophill Low near Driffield runs the same reserve twice, both £4: a warden’s walk on Saturday 12 September and an accessible version on Friday 18 September, on level paths with regular seating and suitable for mobility scooters. (listing)
• Pocklington Canal boat trips, Wednesday 16 September, from the Melbourne Arms moorings. Two sailings, 10am and 1.30pm, aboard the Pocklington Canal Amenity Society’s New Horizons. £8, and you can have a go at steering. (listing)
• Snaith Heritage Trail, Sunday 13 September, 12.30pm from the free car park at Snaith railway station. A 1.5 mile guided walk taking in the Old Mill Brewery, the Wesleyan chapel, the lock up and St Laurence Priory. £5 for adults, under 10s free, parking £1. (listing)
• King Charles III England Coast Path, two versions: five miles from North Landing at Flamborough on Sunday 13 September with the Ramblers, free but £5 to park for over five hours, and a 12.7 mile walk from Bridlington on Sunday 20 September. (listing)

One event, a Pocklington town walk tracing the settlement’s Anglo-Saxon origins, is listed for Thursday 11 September at 6.30pm, the evening before the festival’s advertised start.

What it means for you

• Book, even for the free walks. Nineteen of the 23 Beverley events cost nothing, but the free ones sell tickets through Eventbrite and close bookings the day before. Two had already gone by 30 August.
• If you want the Minster towers, book this week. Ten places were left across the two remaining sessions when we checked.
• Tuesday 15 September is the fullest day in Beverley with seven events, and Monday the 14th is the fullest across the district with 10.
• Several of the meeting points are the same handful of places: the Market Cross in Saturday Market for three walks, the gateway to St Mary’s for three more, the Minster steps for two, and the Champney Treasure House for three.
• The festival overlaps with Heritage Open Days, which runs 11 to 20 September and has 92 free East Riding openings of its own, 28 of them in Beverley. A few entries appear in both programmes.
• Beverley is on the Hull to Scarborough line, and the Elwell walks start at the Clock Tower opposite the station. If you are driving in, the town’s car parks are covered on our parking in Beverley page.