A cool start of the day, overcast. I get to Burton Agnes at around 10am and start climbing the road towards Rudston Beacon. This is a quieter road, but there is traffic, every few minutes throughout the walk. I walk by Burton Agnes Hall and then by a playing ground, that has a motley crew of birds: two Red-legged Patridges chasing, a Mistle Thrush family, many young and adult Rooks, a pair of Oystercatchers and Woodpigeons.
I'm soon by a small copse and look back towards Burton Agnes. As I pass the copse I see some dark birds with Pheasants in the distance and I realise they are Guineafowl.
Looking back towards Burton Agnes from Stone Pit Plantation.
The last interglacial coastline
From Burton Agnes to Bessingby Hill at Bridlington, it is likely that the coast would have been linear, with 30 m high cliffs, similar to those at Sewerby, only to be broken by the wide Great Wold Valley with the tidal Gypsey Race meandering to the tideline. The now unassuming Gypsey Race was probably the largest river after the Humber, as the River Hull wouldn't have existed at the time. The bottom of the cliff line roughly overlaps the train line, and the busy A614 is only a bit higher and parallel to it, but it is far too busy to walk along, so today's main part of the walk follows a quieter clifftop path: Woldgate. Woldgate is a now a single track road that follows part of an ancient route, used by the Romans to travel between York and Bridlington, although Woldgate as such is the stretch from the east of Kilham to Bessingby Hill on the west of Bridlington.
I'm at Burton Agnes Field, an open slope of arable fields either ploughed or green and growing, often lined with overgrown hedges of flowering Hawthorn. A weak trill comes from a hawthorn ahead: a Corn Bunting! I count 5 singing males in a short stretch, what a lovely surprise!
I'm very pleased to realise you can see the sea from Burton Agnes field, the first time since I watched the Humber at Hessle that the distant modern coast is visible. I reach Woldgate and turn right. The mostly flat area is peppered with tumuli or round barrows from the Neolithic or the Bronze Age and nearby there are the remains of a Roman Villa, with an impressive leopard mosaic that can now be viewed in the Hull and East Riding Museum. Shortly after I'm at Rudston Beacon, the highest point in the walk at a mighty 92 m. Woldgate follows a ridge on the Wolds, allowing sweeping views north and south: I can see the sea looking south east, but also the Great Wold Valley looking north. This rural, quiet landscape (barring the passing traffic!) inspired artist David Hockney, who lived in Bridlington from 2004 to 2013. The seasonal changes in hedges, green and yellow fields, the Cow Parsley and Red Campion on the roadside verges and the plantations all feature in his bright and bold paintings that are collected in his book A Bigger Picture.
It's past midday and I'm ready for my lunch. I find a track in the wood and sit down to eat. Afterwards, I spend some time inspecting the trees for snails. I first visited this wood in a memorable trip in September 2016 with my friend Rob Jaques and expert conchologist Adrian Norris. Adrian introduced me to the snail fauna of th earea, including the Lesser Bulin, which I quickly find. It was nice to spot them again in the same site.
After Fond Brig between Hallowkiln Wood and Fish Pond Wood, Woldgate turns gently as it descends the ridge towards Bridlington. I think about ancient walkways and up to what point people might have followed similar routes that extinct megafauna took, perhaps elephant tracks carved onto open, light wooded landscapes, taking advantage of this ridge with good visibility to keep an eye on predators and solid ground away from mires and bogs.
Not much further I spot some Sanicle by the roadside, an indicator of ancient woodland. It is likely that the plantations in this area have been wooded since ancient times.
Woldgate ends at Bessingby Hill by the A165. I cross the road and walk along it for a short stretch before turning left onto Bessingby Road and I'm soon at the station to get my train back home.
The Woolly Rhinoceros, Coelodonta antiquitatis, is a well known extinct species that inhabited Europe during Glacial Periods. During interglacial times in the last half a million years it was replaced by the Narrow-nosed Rhinoceros, Stephanorhinus hemitoechus. This was a large animal, about 2 m tall on the shoulder. Their short legs and low and narrow skull pointing downwards suggest that it was a likely grazer, so it was probably associated with open habitats. However, analysis of the wear patterns of teeth including Yorkshire fossils, revealed that its diet was likely mixed, including some browsing. Both studies on ancient DNA extracted from fossils and morphological features support that the closest living relative of the Narrow-nosed Rhino is the critically endangered Sumatran Rhino. Yorkshire Narrow-nosed Rhino fossils have been found in Kirkdale Cave, Sewerby Cliff and Victoria Cave. Cave Hyenas would have been predators or at least scavenge them.
Can I see them?During the last Ice Age Narrow-nosed Rhinos distribution contracted to southern Europe, and eventually the species became extinct around 42,000 years ago, coinciding with the arrival of Modern Humans to Europe, but also with an intensification of cold conditions. Skeletal morphology and sequencing of proteins supports that the narrow-nosed rhino was closely related to the extinct Woolly Rhino and the Critically Endangered Sumatran Rhino, the smallest and most hairy of the five species of extant rhinos. Sumatran rhinos are solitary and live in dense tropical forests and are browsers. They are currently not kept in zoos, but there is semi-captive breeding in Indonesia, with some recent success, although the species is thought to comprise fewer than 80 individuals in the wild.
Walk details. Distance 12 km. Train to Driffield, then bus 121 to Burton Agnes. Return to Hull by train from Bridlington. Public toilets and restaurants at Bridlington. The walk is on surfaced roads and pavements once near Bridlington. The highest point is 92 m at Rudston Beacon, and the lowest 10 m at Bridlington Station.
More information
van Asperen, E. N. & Kahlke, R.-D. Dietary variation and overlap in Central and Northwest European Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis and S. hemitoechus (Rhinocerotidae, Mammalia) influenced by habitat diversity: ‘You’ll have to take pot luck!’ (proverb). Quat. Sci. Rev. 107, 47–61 (2015).
Welker, F. et al. Middle Pleistocene protein sequences from the rhinoceros genus Stephanorhinus and the phylogeny of extant and extinct Middle/Late Pleistocene Rhinocerotidae. PeerJ 5, e3033 (2017).
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