Hornsea and Hornsea Mere

Discover a wildfowl lake and a Georgian seaside town

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Statistics and Files
Start: Hornsea Promenade Distance: 6.7 miles (10.7 km) Climbing: 30 metres
Grid Ref: TA 20810 47722 Time: 3 hours Rating: Easy
GPX Route File Google Earth File About Hornsea
Statistics
Start: Hornsea Promenade Distance: 6.7 miles (10.7 km)
Climbing: 30 metres Grid Ref: TA 20810 47722
Time: 3 hours Rating: Easy
GPX Route File Google Earth File
Ordnance Survey Explorer Map (1:25,000)

The Walk: Hornsea is an attractive old town with many interesting Georgian buildings, a fine church and an award winning museum. Its position between the North Sea coast and Yorkshire's largest lake, Hornsea Mere, earned it the title of 'Lakeland by the Sea' in an LNER poster of the 1920's. The walk starts near the sea front and sets out on the old Hornsea and Hull railway line, which was closed in 1964.

Hornsea PromenadeHornsea Promenade
Former Hornsea Town railway stationFormer Hornsea Town railway station

After walking the first kilometer the disused railway embankment descends to a roundabout. On Marlborough Avenue it is worth making a slight detour to Hornsea Pottery. The site, now in a retail and leisure park, includes a butterfly house, model village, and more attractions.

Back on the main route, you descent through allotments to Hull Road. The route enters meadowland beside Hornsea Mere, an important RSPB Reserve and home to huge numbers of wintering wildfowl and coot.

The route passes the site of the deserted medieval village of Southorpe, one of many abandoned in East Yorkshire during the plagues of the 13th and 14th centuries. Nothing remains of the village apart from some tell-tale undulations at ground level.

Hornsea MereHornsea Mere
Church of St Nicholas, HornseaChurch of St Nicholas, Hornsea

At the western end of the walk, there is a brief glimpse through the trees to Wassand Hall, a detached Georgian villa in private ownership. Beyond Home Farm, you follow an avenue of magnificent sycamores.

You return round the north side of Hornsea Mere along field paths, then a surfaced roadside path. Back in Hornsea, the first cottages on Westgate are particularly attractive, and typical of the town's Georgian heritage. St Nicholas' church, in the town centre, is much older; mainly Perpendicular in style; it was completed between 1400 and 1422 and restored in the mid-Victorian period. The sanctuary is well known for its 'lantern' windows.

Further down Newbegin is the Hornsea Museum. There are local history displays, and many rooms are furnished as they would have been in the 19th century. On completion of the walk you can pop onto the seafront and enjoy refreshments; hot drinks any time of year and perhaps a cooling ice-cream in summer.


Acknowledgments: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.

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