Kilburn White Horse

Visit the White Horse landmark with close up views on this walk which includes woodland walking and passes a Glider club along the way.

 Kilburn White Horse

  Getting There Take the A19 south from Middlesbrough until you reach the Thirsk turn off. Follow the road up Sutton Bank which is very steep. When you get to the top look for the first right turn off which should be signposted to the Glider club. Turn left towards the Glider club and then drive to the White Horse car park where the walk starts.The Walk

 Route of the Kilburn White Horse walk

 

From the car park a steep flight of steps climb beside the White Horse to the top of the scarp. To the left a good path then follows the cliff edge around the perimeter of the airfield.  

                                                      View from the top of the scarp 

 Sign at Gliders Club

  

After 3/4 of a mile at a red-topped marker post which is adjacent to the airfield take a left turning onto a narrower path which doubles back on an oblique descent. You will be able to view across the plains and Sutton cliffs on your descent down. 

  As the gradient eases at the bottom of the hill, watch for a path joining from the right. Follow the path to the right and then almost immediately, leave sharp left along a marked bridleway that drops into the lower forest. Keep ahead when you later cross a green track, carrying on down to emerge onto a foresters road. Walk briefly left to a green-topped marker post and there make an acute left turn onto a wide rising path. After a sharp right hand bend, the ascent continues soon joining a higher track. With most of the climbing behind you, follow it right and then when you arrive at a fork, bear left. Reaching the next junction, go left and then right, rising to a broader path. The car park lies a short distance to the right. For a detour you can visit the gliding club when you drive back up the road you came down to the White Horse.

 

 Gliders Club

  

Kilburn White Horse  The Kilburn White Horse, grid reference SE516813, is a hill figure cut into the hillside in the North York Moors National Park near Kilburn in North Yorkshire, England. The figure is 318 feet (97 m) long by 220 ft (67 m) high and covers about 1.6 acres (6,475.0 m2) and said to be the largest and most northerly hill figure in England.Located on the southern flank of Sutton Bank, near Roulston Scar at the edge of the Hambleton table-land, it faces south-south-west and is visible from some distance, particularly from the East Coast Main Line railway south of Thirsk, and from the A19. On a clear day, the horse is visible from north Leeds, 28 miles (45 km) away on the higher ground to the west of the Vale of York.Sutton Bank, geologically, is formed of sandstone and the horse was created by removing the topsoil and exposing the underlying rock and covering it with white limestone chips. It was created in November 1857, and some accounts state that it was done by school master John Hodgson and his pupils, together with local volunteers. A tablet erected at the car park below it reads, "The Kilburn 'White Horse' -- This figure was cut in 1857 on the initiative of Thomas Taylor, a native of Kilburn. In 1925 a restoration fund was subscribed by the readers of the Yorkshire Evening Post and the residue of £100 was invested to provide for the triennial grooming of the figure."

However, Morris Marples in his 1949 book gives Thomas Taylor the credit for being the prime mover: a native of Kilburn, he was a buyer for a London provision merchant, and he seems to have attended celebrations at Uffington White Horse in 1857, and he was inspired to give his home village a similar example. Thirty-three men were involved in cutting it, and 6 tons (6.1 metric tonnes) of lime were used to whiten the exposed rock. Nowadays a car park is provided below the white horse and there is a footpath ascending past it and crossing immediately above it. The image itself is now formed of off-white limestone chips, but the steep gradient of the hillside, especially at the horse's breast and forelegs, have led to slumping and retention boards have been fixed to restrain this.