The half-term holiday seems an ideal opportunity to do this, so I have chosen a walk in the very north of Lincolnshire near South Ferriby.

South Ferriby Sluice and marina.

Partly on the Viking Way, it gives stupendous views over the Ancholme Valley, Reads Island and across the Humber into Yorkshire.
The views alone justify the journey and we also see a unique suspension bridge.

Start from the Countryside Commission car park, Ferriby Sluice (GR976210) situated opposite the Hope and Anchor pub; picnics are possible on the bank of the New River Ancholme, near Horkstow Bridge or beside the Humber.
Use OS. Landranger 112 or Explorer 281 maps, the distance is five miles (7.5 kilometres).

One of Horkstow's claims to fame is the suspension bridge over the New River Ancholme.
Work to create this straight, navigable waterway began in 1825, though Ferriby Sluice, the final link with the Humber, wasn't finished until 1844.
Even today, however, the meandering course of the 'old' river is still traceable on OS maps.
That famous civil engineer John Rennie planned the whole scheme, and Horkstow Bridge was his only suspension bridge design.

Horkstow: John Rennie's suspension bridge.

It is therefore of national historic importance and has been restored with timber decking and brightly painted red and green ironwork.
On completion Ferriby Sluice became the terminus both for Humber ferries and the packet boats, which voyaged inland to Brigg until just before WWI. It is now a marina for pleasure boats.

The walk also passes the walled grounds of Horkstow Hall.
During garden landscaping here in the 1790s, a magnificent 18 feet long Roman mosaic depicting a chariot race was unearthed, it is now in the British Museum.
Any Roman settlement here would have been linked to the Ermine Street from London to York that used a ferry at Winteringham Haven only four miles away.

Shipping on the Humber.

High above South Ferriby the path passes Middlegate quarry, which opened in 1938 and now extends to some 150 acres.
Successive layers of clay, sand and iron pyrites are quarried, along with the uppermost layers of chalk, and all are used in making cement at the large factory far below beside the Humber.

The Viking Way passes over the conveyor belt that connects them. The bottom of the quarry (unseen) is now deeper than the bed of the Humber.
Further on, South Ferriby's church stands on the hillside above the village.
Outwardly St Nicholas' seems all C18th brick, but there is some Norman stonework, including a figure, reputedly of the saint himself.

Because of its sloping site, the church is aligned north to south rather than the usual east to west; the churchyard can be accessed from the Viking Way.
The walk's best views are from the hilltop here overlooking Reads Island.

St Nicholas' Church, the Humber, and Reads Island in the distance.

This (legend says) began to form around 1820 with silt collecting around a sunken French schooner.
It had grown to 75 acres by 1840 and to 450 acres by 1886, and a solitary farmhouse was eventually built on it and the island named after its first tenant farmer.
Remarkably, there was a spring for fresh water, but farm animals, people and all supplies, relied on ferries.
Ferriby and Winteringham parishes share the island and it constantly changes its shape through erosion and deposition.
The walk ends along the Humber bank, often in close proximity to shipping, for a deepwater channel runs close inshore here.

To complete your day out why not visit the newly opened ultra-modern, multi-million pound Waterside Visitor Centre and nature reserve at nearby Barton?

South Ferriby and Horkstow

From the car park entrance turn left and left again down steps to the marina, having the New River Anchome on your right.

Continue through boatyards until a riverside path develops, follow this to John Rennie's suspension bridge.
Go up to Bridge Lane and turn left following it for half a mile to its junction with the B1204 road (on the corner is the walled garden of the Hall).

Cross the road to a kissing gate and map for a conservation area open to the public.
Keep forward up meadows (though there is right to roam) to a gate on your left.

Go through this, then continue uphill beside a hedge to a gate and stile at the top.

In the lane beyond turn left, and at a T junction cross onto the track opposite (the Viking Way).

This leads past Middlegate Quarry before descending to the A1077 at South Ferriby.
Now cross into Cliff Road which soon becomes a track.
At a footpath sign turn left down a field edge towards the Humber.

From the stile at the bottom turn left beside the reed beds to another stile near South Ferriby Hall.

Climb this and follow the Humber bank for a mile back to Ferriby Sluice.

Finally turn left back to the road, the Hope and Anchor, and the start.