Best Foot Forward: Mytholmroyd to Stoodley Pike

This week we feature four walks from Mytholmroyd to Stoodley Pike courtesy of Rose Wheeler from Mytholmroyd Walkers.
By The Newsroom
Published 17th Feb 2017, 13:33 BST
Updated 28th Feb 2017, 12:43 BST

Walk 1: From Dauber Bridge via Broadhead Clough. 3.5 miles; 2 hours.
Walk or take the 901 bus to Dauber Bridge, just under a mile up Cragg Road from Mytholmroyd. Take the track which forks up to the right. Follow this track, ignoring a turning on your right. The concrete eventually gives way to an unmetalled track and soon, you arrive at a junction of paths. Across the junction is the lower entrance to Broadhead Clough nature reserve. Follow the track up through the reserve. This often-steep path takes you to the upper entrance of the reserve marked by a gate. Here the path turns right and climbs out of the woods and up on to the moor. Once on the moor, take the path briefly to the left and then bear right towards the marker post above the path. Follow this until you come to a boundary stone. Just beyond this the path bears left. On the horizon to your left are some electric poles beyond which is a stone wall. The path gradually makes its way towards them. Go straight on to reach a very wide pathway flanked by walls on either side. This is the beginning of Dick Lane. At the far end of Dick Lane, the wall on the right bears to the right. Head for a marker post on the left of the wall. Follow the path to the monument.

Walk 2: Via The Hinchliffe pub. 3.5 miles; 1 hr 45 mins.
Get off the 901 bus just before Cragg Vale Junior School on Cragg Road. Cross over and walk down Church Bank Lane past the church to the Hinchliffe. You’re already on the Calderdale Way (CW), which you will mostly follow for about 3 miles. From the pub, take the metalled road uphill to Withens Clough reservoir. The road continues along the reservoir and becomes a stony track. Ignore a path signed to Stoodley Pike opposite an inlet and continue until shortly before the large wood where you make a right turn upwards along a wide grassy path signposted as the Calderdale Way. Towards the top of this you leave the CW taking a left turn marked “Yorkshire Water – Permissive Bridleway”. This runs above the wood. You are soon back on the CW. The path then takes a sharp turn to the right through a gated field. At the far gate the path runs downhill until the Pennine Way (and Walk 3) comes in from the left. Here you turn right. The often rough and rocky path then runs along the top of the escarpment to the monument.

Walk 3: Via The White House pub. 5 miles; 2 hours
Take the 901 bus to Blackstone Edge, and walk in the opposite direction to the bus route down towards the White House pub. Just after passing Blackstone Edge reservoir on your right, leave the road through a small side gate by a locked gate. Follow the signs for the Pennine Way (PW) keeping the reservoir on your right. This route stays on the PW all the way to Stoodley Pike so is easy to follow. After a mile, a slight detour will reward you with sight of the Rain Stone. The path then passes Light Hazzles and Warland reservoirs – keep to the side of these and continue as walk 2 to the monument.

Walk 4: From Mytholmroyd Station. 4 miles; 3 hours
From the station, follow the main Cragg Vale Road then turn right at the Fire Station Gallery. Walk up the steep road and turn left into Nest Lane. Follow this lane for about 3⁄4 mile. When the tarmac ends keep right and continue until you reach a left turn marked as Spencer Lane. Follow this steep lane – cobbles at first but eventually tarmac. Turn right at the top and follow the track through Old Chamber keeping straight on past a turning to Hebden Bridge. Follow the path which heads sharply left uphill, and continue until you reach a T-junction. Turn right here and follow this track straight on to the monument, eventually joining the Pennine Bridleway. Go through the gate at Swillington farm and soon a Pennine Way signpost directs you up the track to the left. The track goes through a gap in a wall where you turn right and you can see the monument ahead. This is the quickest route to the Pike. 

Return to Mytholmroyd (walk 4 in reverse)
4 miles; 2 hours.
From Stoodley Pike follow the Pennine Way downhill. The path goes through a gap in a wall. A few yards after this there’s a signpost pointing the Pennine Way through a gap in another wall. Follow this stony path to a T- junction and turn right. After a farm, continue to a crossroads. Continue straight on until a second cross roads where the Pennine Bridleway turns off left. Go straight over until the track turns left downhill. Follow this track until the path turns right. Continue through Old Chamber. Just after the last building, turn left down the road. At the bottom, turn right into Wood Hey Lane, and continue to the far end of Nest Lane. Then take the short steep road on the right down to Cragg Road, then left to head back to the station.