Walks and Rambles: Elland Park Wood

I’ve kept looking for walks around Halifax area and they seem to be thin on the ground. Finally found one from the Yorkshire Post this walk is supposed to be good to do in May as its through woods full of bluebells so now was the right time to do it. The start was easy enough to find although the car park was quite small behind a unit that seemed to make wooden pallets. The directions were fairly straight forward – back to the main road and across to a track up into the woods. Up by a house I turned off onto a track into the woods proper.

There were lots of tracks criss crossing the woods and it looked as though some of the paths were used by mountain bikers but my directions were to keep fairly straight through the woods. Have to admit the bluebells were beautiful and when the bluebells disappeared the wild garlic took over. At the end of the woods I came to a red brick cobbled road.

It must have taken thousands of bricks to make this road. Following the road uphill I turned off over a stream up some steps and into a field. At the top of a field I came to a farm track. At the end it was lucky I looked back and spotted the stile – down a field and marked as part of the Calderdale Way. Going down the field I stopped to look across the valley and the farmer appeared on his tractor. He stopped and asked if I was lost. I said no was just admiring the view – then I thought I’d best be on my way.

The path came out onto a small road by some rugby fields. There must have been an important game on the road had cars parked along it from end to end and there was a large crowd on the sidelines watching the game. After walking along the road a few yards I took a path down through a field. Then I had to come back up the field – should have crossed it instead of going down it. The stile was at the top. Then I could go down – entering some woods and following a path emerging onto the A629. Didn’t like this bit had to cross the busy road and after trailing up and down the road a couple of times I couldn’t find the path down to the canal so had to go along side the road till I could turn down at a roundabout and pick up the tow path there. Then it was just a steady walk along the towpath back to the start where I’d parked. This canal was very quiet. On the way I passed ducks and geese with their ducklings, and goslings – I think now was the best time of year to do this walk.