Great Yeldham Footpath Walks,
7b: Kirby Hall and Upper Yeldham Hall, anti-clockwise walk

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Walk 7b Route map

Just over 2 hours. About 4½ miles.
Start: Great Yeldham Village Green.

Go up Leather Lane. Shortly beyond where Butlers Way branches off on the right, there is a length of hedge on the right followed by an opening with a garage.

Cross over by the concrete footpath sign and go up the path which is to the left of the garage. It is a narrow path between trees on each side. Follow the path ahead as far as you can ignoring unofficial branches off to the right into the next field. The path then goes right leaves and continues on the field side of the hedge for a very short distance to a footbridge.

Cross the footbridge and turn right. Follow the farm track with the hedge on your right. Follow the track where the boundary first turns left ignoring the gap on the right, follow it as it bends right and left again before going through a gap on the right to a farm road with a concrete slab on the left, and then with hedges on both sides. Follow this short, straight track to a gap just before the gate at the end.

Go through the gap and down the middle of a cultivated field aiming for a gap at the bottom with a post just visible from a distance. This and the next field are often left for some time after ploughing or cultivating before the path is restored. It is heavy clay soil and can be very muddy. Cross a footbridge into the next field and continue up the middle of the field to the corner of the wood at the top.

Go ahead along a wide grass track passing the wood on your left. At the far side of the next field go right through a kissing gate, over a footbridge and left over an unmade farm track. This track can be very muddy. Where the track joins a hard farm road go left to Kirby Hall. At Kirby Hall go shortly right and then left though the farm yard with the farm house on your left.

Go left onto the road and follow the road to Priestfields Farm. The wide grass verges here are a wonderful sight in spring when the Primroses and Cowslips are in flower. At Priestfields Farm go ahead between the farm buildings on the right and the house on the left and go left onto a small piece of mown grass where caravans are often parked. Cross the grass diagonally to the corner and go down hill across the field aiming for a gap in the opposite hedge.

Go ahead through the gap across a wooden plank footbridge and cross a narrow field to another gap in the opposite hedge. Keep ahead over a wide piped field entrance and up the next field with the hedge on your right. Pass the Upper Yeldham Hall farm buildings on your right, and go left along a hard farm road. Go ahead from the end of the farm road and then slightly right across cultivated land to a gap in the hedge with a way-marking post. Sometimes the path takes you slightly to the right of the gap and you have to go a few yards left before crossing through.

Go through the gap and left along the boundary of a field with the hedge on your left. Follow the boundary right to the Little Yeldham road. Go left down the road along Leather Lane and back to the Village Green.

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5 Apr 2013