As featured on www.yorkshire.com and www.walkshire.com
The book of this trail has been designed as a step-by-step guide, obviating the need for maps, so that absolute beginners and experienced walkers alike can complete it. The path is well signed with footpath and bridleway signs. I would love to waymark it but the North York Moors National Park Authority will not allow any more waymarks on their land and as around a quarter of the walk is on their land, there is no point.
There are no mountains to conquer, nor even any significant hills.
For the most part, the walk is easy going underfoot and relatively flat.
The White Rose Way links sections of existing trails with little used public footpaths to create a new 104 mile walking trail from Leeds City Centre to Scarborough.
It can be completed by anyone who is reasonably fit and may be tackled at any time of year. However, it should be noted that the walk follows riverbanks for quite some way and at times, the rivers Wharfe, Ouse, Derwent and Rye may be in a state of flood. It is usually only in some wetter winter months that this may be a problem.
The walk is similar in many ways to a National Trail.
From ultra modern Leeds City Square, the walk weaves out of the centre via Victorian housing developments and soon enters fingers of connected parkland.
The countryside surrounding Leeds is quickly encountered as the trail passes the outdoor film set of the fictional village of Emmerdale before traversing the grounds of Harewood House and its deer park.
The lush Wharfe valley is then followed, through the upmarket village of Linton and on to picturesque Wetherby, with its ancient market and bridge.
Yorkshire stone villages come and go as historic Newton Kyme and Boston Spa are passed before the route reaches Tadcaster with its rich brewing history. Sniff the air here, it will do you good!
The route then takes an ancient, countryside Roman Road into the York suburb of Fulford. You can easily imagine the soldiers marching from Tadcaster to York.
The agricultural plains that follow lead on to Kexby and Low Catton before the historically important battle site of Stamford Bridge.
The walk then turns upstream alongside the River Derwent, entering the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, past the ruins of Kirkham Abbey and into Malton.
The pretty village of Thornton Le Dale comes next, as the walk enters the North York Moors National Park and into the impossibly beautiful Dalby and Wykeham Forests.
The remote village of Harwood Dale precedes a last push to the Yorkshire coast, where a few bracing cliff-top miles leads to a beach and headland walk into the South Bay at Scarborough and the finish line.
One of the best aspects of walking for me, however, is the camaraderie of fellow walkers and the hospitality and friendliness of the local Yorkshire people.
