Kick your way through autumn leaves on this golden route of hill and canal sides in Calderdale.
1. Leave the nature reserve the way you drove in. Cross A6025 and turn left along footway. Turn right onto gravel bridleway which bears left. Just after house fork left up bridleway. Where walled path bears sharp right take an 11 o'clock direction, slightly downwards and through trees to pick up a path and pass a stone post. At way-marker post bear right and at second way-marker bear right again heading for and along a trough. Pass to the right of a mound and between large stones. Fork left downhill and at way-marker fork left and down again to pass two gravestone-like slabs. At a large stone turn right up brick path. Fork left and down, cross a stream via stepping stones and up steps.
2. Leave the wood via stone stile and cross field ahead in 1 o'clock direction to and through a gap in the fence. Turn left to follow field edge. The path becomes a Tarmac track to and past a house. Turn sharp left before road and sign for Woodnook Farm. Go through stone stile and descend valley side between wall and electric fence. Go over wall stile and head to the right of a tree at the end of a wall towards the corner of a fence. Continue with the fence on your right. Go over a fence stile beside a new school and keep ahead and downhill to the road and a rugby ground.
3. Turn left onto the road and, as it bears left, keep ahead over a step stile. Turn left and behind a barn heading towards and over a step stile. Turn right and steeply down through trees to A629. Turn left alongside road. Just before bus layby cross road with care via gap in carriageway barrier. Head down a Tarmac path for 20 yards then fork to right of a stone wall following way-marker. Descend steps to Long Lees lock on the Calder & Hebble Navigation. Cross the canal via the farther lock gates then turn left alongside towpath. Pass under Elland Wood viaduct.
4. After ruins of Woodside Mills turn left over bridge and continue ahead along towpath. (A diversion for construction work was in place at the time of writing.) Pass under Elland Bridge. (The town centre is 400 yards to the south). Turn sharp left up a cobbled path to go back on yourself and over the bridge. Turn first left down Gasworks Lane and, at the end, left signed for cycle route 66 to return to the canal. Turn right and underneath rail, road and pipe bridges. After an easy mile of towpath turn left over first bridge to return to car park.
Points of interest
Elland is twinned with Riorges in France but might have been better paired with Mandalay in Myanmar. Both towns share the misfortune to be better known for the roads leading to them rather than what’s there. The Road to Mandalay is poem, song, novel and film, and we all know what’s based at Elland Road in Leeds.
To continue a footballing theme, Elland Park Wood is set on a south-facing bank above the town like a grandstand overlooking the pitch. I kicked off my walk in the wood on a golden late autumn day when there were far fewer leaves on the trees than on the ground and clogging the Hebble & Calder Navigation which provided my return route. Look out for the ruins of the Woodside Mills, once five storeys high and, in 1890, the largest flour mill in Yorkshire. Its arches make it look like a folly. Divert into Elland for a bite to eat, the vast town hall, the equally grand Britannia Building built as a bank in 1893, and the wonderfully retro Rex cinema, now 110 years old.
Leave some time too to explore Cromwell Bottom Local Nature Reserve on the site of a former quarry and power station ash tip. It consists of 74 acres of varied habitat including flower meadows, dry and wet woodland, a lagoon, a pond dipping platform and bird feeding areas. Look and listen out for kingfishers, oystercatchers and curlew.
Eat here
The Tea Monkey, Elland. Cosy corner café with two floors established by two former school finance colleagues in March 2021. Chosen largely for its memorability, the name comes from the nickname given to one of their daughters by members of the Rotary Club where she helped out making teas! Porridge and soup always on the specials board. Hot roast beef and turkey sandwiches also popular. theteamonkey.com.
Cromwell Bottom Nature Reserve cabin. Open Sundays only, 10am to 4pm.
Compass points
Start/finish: HD6 2RG. SE124224.
Time/distance: 2-3 hours/7.2km.
Accessibility: Navigation through Elland Wood needs attention. Route includes one main road crossing and some short, steep descents.
Map: OS Explorer 288, Bradford & Huddersfield. OS Landranger 104, Leeds & Bradford.
Parking: Cromwell Bottom Local Nature Reserve. Free.
Map link: osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/route/11290425/Elland-Wood
