A Walk From The Towpath

Never done this walk before – it’s from a magazine and now the afternoons of daylight are quite short I don’t want to travel too far to get to the start of the walk. This walk starts at Bar Lane, Riddlesden walking along the towpath towards Skipton. 

  I continued along until I came to Booths Bridge, 

here I crossed over the canal and headed up a rough track until it came out at the 18^th hole of Riddlesden Golf club.  

Thought of my Dad here as this is where he grew up.  Unfortunately the Golf club has now closed down.  From here the path went up past the club house to the first tee, then left up to the top of the fairway.  I then turned right following the wall and the topside of the green.  

The views were pretty good today.  From here I made my way across a field to a field gate and onto  a grassy track to meet the track to Wood Head Lodge and onto the hamlet of High Wood Head on the right. Eventually coming to Banks Lane – here I turned up and then took a drive to Larkfield Farm – 

here there were some goats in a paddock and I continued along the back of the house to a stile through a field to eventually come through a stile onto a muddy farm track.  Here I remembered walking around here in the opposite direction and it taking ages to find this little stile. In the farmyard in the past there has been a Guard dog that is chained up – no dog came out today and I got through the farmyard and into a really muddy field – last time I came through here it was full of cows, not today thank goodness.  Eventually after going through fields I came to Rivock Farm

 which is disused here I turned right and into a steep downhill field eventually emerging by a Methodist Church. From here I went down steps onto Banks Lane crossing over and down another set of steps and down the road to emerge onto Bar Lane where I started.

This was a good walk I’d like to do again – in summer maybe as it will look totally different then and hopefully not be so muddy a pleasant 4 miles.

Sunnydale

This is a lovely local walk – I always enjoy it and today I only had time for a short walk as I was going out for an early dinner and then to see the local G&S Society perform The Gondoliers.  When I did this walk earlier in the year it was a lovely warm sunny day.  Today it was definitely autumnal but fine and not too cold. Heading off Green end Road passing a large stone aquaduct on the right. 

  At a fork in the road I turned left then right on a good track heading away, as the track swings to cross the beck  I continued on to the Sunnydale Reservoir. 

  Here I caught up with a family reminiscing about how they used to come and play here when they were children, now they were parents bringing their children to the same places. Crossing the dam and up a steep I turned off to the left into a small woodland path.

Along here is a small dam on the right no duck here today but still really pretty.  As went through the wood I could hear clay pigeon shooting – it echoed all around the valley. It got louder and louder as I arrived at Sweet Well Dike.

Continuing on the path I went down the cart track here on my left I saw a small stone bridge, I’d never noticed this before – on the left were  all the cars for the shooting – there looked to be good group there for the afternoon.

 I came out onto Ilkley road and turned left down to the crossroads. Here I turned left along the road, then looked at the book, I thought I’d gone wrong,  I should have gone straight across at the cross roads – still I didn’t really have time to go back so I carried on and took the first signed footpath to take me back down into Riddlesden – just by the old TB hospital.  From there it was a straight walk back along the road to where I’d parked my car.

It had been a lovely walk and I felt a lot better for it – a good 4 miles or so and the autumn colours had been lovely.  Note to self – next time go straight down the road not left.

Cononley Lead Mine

I really like this walk but I’d stopped doing it as you had to walk through the farm yard of Manor House Farm and it always had 4 Rottweilers on chains and one loose wondering around.  The farmer said they were okay but it put me off going there.  Anyway I’d got my OS map out and found a path which meant I could miss this bit of the walk out without too much of a detour.

I parked up in the tiny car park in Cononley and set off up towards Town Head Farm. 

  The track then turned up a green way which was pretty boggy after all the rain last week.  As I got to Great and Little Gib here was the change from the normal walk – instead of taking the stile on the left I carried along the track to take a stile into a field straight in front of me – from here the path went across the fields to eventually arrive at a corner stile back on to the Lothersdale road. 

  Walking across the field I got a good view of the Cononley Lead Mine pump house.  Another day I’d like to walk up there and have a look around – it’s restored/preserved by Earby mining society and was in use from 1842 to 1882.  I believe cavers sometimes go down the shafts and explore the veins down there.

After walking back down the road the Manor House farm came into view and I took a right down a track by a farm.  Looking across at Earl Crag and Cowling Pinnacle.  At the bottom I dropped onto an access road.  It was lovely walking along there today – at the end I turned off by Buckett Farm then through a gate and up through a field – on the other side of the field wall was a herd of very noisy cows which followed me up the hill on their side of the wall.  

Thank goodness I didn’t have to go in that field.  Going through gates I came back out on to the road just above Glusburn – soon taking a path on my left – going through a gate and past an old empty reservoir.

The path was clear from here slating back down the hillside, it was pretty muddy in parts but easy enough walking.  Eventually I turned down a track onto the main road.  However I should have turned down sooner as the directions said turn left to a ladder stile and I had to turn right.  The ladder stile took me across the railway line to a path alongside the river Aire and onto the road back into the village – a lovely walk.  

Had felt quite warm even though its November – about 5 ½ miles.  I’ll do this again now I’ve found an alternative to the Farm.

The Standard

It’s a few years since I’ve walked here and I’ve only ever done the walk once before.  In my book all I wrote was 2 miles up and 2 miles down so interesting to see how I find it today. 

The walk starts by Snaygill swing bridge and follows a farm track up the hill to a gate. 

  Here I must have misread the directions and walked all the way up a field on the left – I went down again and took the field straight in front of me to go back up the hill again.  

None of this walk was striking any memories at all. As I continued along finally I came to a grassy lane which I vaguely remembered.  The views today were stunning across the Aire Valley.

The grassy lane brought me to a hamlet High Bradley.  The directions said go right along a drive rising across the fields.  I went up to the top and wasn’t sure I’d gone the right way so I trogged back down to High Bradley, re-read the instructions and set off again.  (Back the way I’d just walked).  I don’t remember getting lost so much the last time I did this walk although to be fair I don’t remember much of this walk at all.  As I kept climbing up the views just got better.  Today you could see all the hills in the distance Boulsworth Hill, Pinhaw. 

  As I reached a cross roads of paths I realised I had turned up too soon and should have been on the top of Millstone Hill on my right, this is being the highest point of the walk I should have then turned to the path I’m already on.

The next part was pretty straight forward, thank goodness – I then turned left and took a clear path back down the fields to Cawder Gill past Cawder Hall then to a gate opposite Horse Close, This is easier to see once you’ve walked past it to then look back.  From here the way back down to the canal was straight forward, thank goodness as the light was dropping now.

Excellent walk – good views 4 miles that I managed to turn into 5 ½ miles by getting lost several times.  Note to self – don’t leave it so long to do this walk again.