The Pennine Way - A Walker's Guidebook
The Pennine Way
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Stage 4 - Calderdale to Lothersdale
Distance: 18¼ miles (30km)
Main Ascents: Charlestown to Heptonstall Moor – 886ft (270m); Graining Water to Withins Height – 525ft (160m); Ponden Reservoir to Ickornshaw Moor – 623ft (190m); Ickornshaw village to above Lothersdale – 302ft (92m)
Refreshments: Highgate Farm shop, Colden; Ponden (on/near route) Hall (seasonal); Black Bull pub, A6068 near Cowling
Public transport: The Worth Valley Railway (privately run) stops at Haworth, 2 miles (3.2km) east of Ponden for connection with main line trains at Keighley; buses from Cowling to Colne (nearest railway station).
Accommodation: B&Bs at Colden, Blackshaw Head, Ponden Hall, Cowling, Ickornshaw and Lothersdale; nearest youth hostels are Haworth and Colne; camping at New Delight pub (Colden), High Greenwood House (Heptonstall), Upper Heights Farm, Ponden Hall, Winter House Farm (Cowling)
Maps: OS Landranger Sheet 103, OS Explorer Sheet 21
Intricate paved paths characterise the departure from Calderdale. Thereafter the stage is once again dominated by moorland: not just any moorland however, for here west of Haworth the heights, Wuthering or otherwise, have been immortalised by the famous Bronte sisters. Almost inevitably there are reservoirs too, but the walking has a gentler flavour in places, as if anticipating the verdant, more hospitable country that lies ahead.
Road, river, canal and railway crowd the valley floor in Calderdale and the air may temporarily lack the purity you have grown accustomed to thus far on the Pennine Way! But escape is close at hand: just along to the right on the opposite side of the A646, the trail heads up Underbank Avenue beneath an old Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway bridge and into a footpath past cottages leading to a junction by a curious ruined chapel. The official way turns right here, though there is provision for Alfred Wainwright’s alternative keeping left.
Contouring at first then rising along neglected hillside, there are wonderful views back over to Stoodley Pike. Beyond steps at a little stone-faced waterfall, the trail passes round farm buildings and enters a walled track to reach a junction. Bear left and in 100m turn right through a wall gap to head north up rectangular fields enclosed in the late 18th century. Once across Badger Lane and over Pry Hill there is a heather-lined descent through the upper reaches of Colden Clough. Colden Water itself is spanned by an old stone packhorse bridge at an intersection with the Calderdale Way here in the wooded, rocky recesses of Hebble Hole. Climbing steeply out, the trail curves left to by-pass Goose Hey Farm then resumes northward progress to Colden hamlet at the Burnley to Hebden Bridge road.
A short distance ahead, cross Edge Lane. (Should items of shopping be required, High Gate Farm shop can be found about 250m along to the left – a veritable Aladdin’s Cave serving the local community as well as passing walkers.)
Past Long High Top and Mount Pleasant farms, the Way ascends, steeply at first, onto the broad open expanses of Heptonstall Moor. From the shallow summit of Clough Head Hill a generally north-westerly course takes you round the eastern slopes of Standing Stone Hill and down to a track onto which you turn right to pass Gorple Cottages near Gorple Lower Reservoir.
On down a paved path lies the confluence of Reaps Water and Graining Water; these are tributaries of Hebden Water whose deeply wooded dale meanders past Hardcastle Crags on its way to join Crimsworth Dean Beck and the River Calder. Ahead footbridges span the streams in a miniature ravine, then the paved trail rises along the east bank of Graining Water to meet the Hebden Bridge – Brierfield road. Turn left and once past Well Hole Cottage turn right, just past the Gorple Reservoir service road opposite. A path quickly leads you to the concrete reservoir roadway serving Walshaw Dean. Bear right before the first reservoir and follow its east bank to the dam separating the lower and middle reservoirs.
Rhododendrons have colonised the shore, though elsewhere bushes and trees are in short supply hereabouts. Having crossed a footbridge by the dam, the onward trail takes to a path as far as a bridge over Black Dike. Shortly after, follow the clear flag path, built by the Calderdale Countryside Service team in 1989, uphill onto Withins Height End. Take a look back over the three reservoirs to the still-visible Stoodley Pike monument before you cross the minor watershed and reach Top Withins.
Occupied until the 1930s, the lonely farmstead of Top Withins crumbled into a ruin, which was however still entirely in keeping with the wild and romantic vision of Emily Bronte, whose Wuthering Heights may well have been inspired by this spot. Unfortunately, by consolidating the site as a shrine for the many thousands of literary pilgrims who come here from all over the world, that elusive, evocative essence has, perhaps inevitably, been lost.
A substantial track now heads north-east, above the headwaters of South Dean Beck with its Bronte waterfalls, swinging round to pass 18th-century Upper Heights Farm. A short distance further on you bear left past Lower Heights Farm then turn sharp left along an old walled drove road, now in tandem with the Bronte Way. Descending from the moors into the Worth Valley with its chequered hillsides of field patterns, the trail jinks right to Buckley Green then left towards Buckley House cottages where a waymarked path on the right drops via Rush Isles Farm to Ponden Reservoir.
With Haworth’s accommodation, shops and attractions just 2 miles (3.5km) along the road to the east, this stage could be shortened, especially for those interested in the Bronte story. Many Pennine Wayfarers, however, will have sights set on reaching Cowling or Lothersdale and will know from the map that one more block of moorland lies ahead.
First follow the reservoir shoreline track to Ponden Hall (another possible overnight stop which may also offer refreshments in the holiday season). Dating from 1680, the hall has been associated with Emily Bronte’s Thrushcross Grange. Passing outbuildings, the trail contours well above the reservoir until an acute right turn brings you down to a bridge over the River Worth at the Colne – Haworth road.
A short but complicated section begins from a ladder stile just along to the west. First climb parallel to Dean Clough over Dean Fields, guided by old gateposts. Keep left beyond a ruined barn, pass a house to your right and follow a walled farm track. Watch out for a sharp left turn and follow the line of a wall above the shady depths of Dean Clough to meet the road at Crag Bottom. Swinging round the little valley, it reaches Old Crag Bottom Farm where the Pennine Way turns off right and climbs to Crag Top; in good visibility it’s a splendid viewpoint over Bronte country.
This spot also signals the start of this stage’s final moorland crossing and as you steadily gain height north-westwards beside wall and fence, surroundings change from pasture and farm to the familiar austerity of bilberry, heather, wet grasses and increasing exposures of peat. Bearing slightly left from Old Bess Hill above Keighley Moor Reservoir, the Way is clear enough on the ground as it threads through wet, boggy areas. To the east rise the Wolf Stones with their crowning trig pillar at 1453ft (443m).
Trending north towards distant Cowling Parish Church, you gradually begin to lose height from Cat Stone Hill over the peaty sweep of Ickornshaw Moor, whose peat groughs, though alleviated by flagstones, make an unwelcome reappearance.
Reference to wolves and cats on these moors remind us of a period in history three or four centuries past when such wild species roamed the countryside, slowly lost their ground to farmers and hunters and eventually retreated to the high moortops for sanctuary.
From a stone hut on High End Lowe, the path meets a wall and passes several small timber-built chalets before veering left. Further down at the end of the wall you follow marker posts to a ladder stile.
As well as a return to more hospitable terrain, there are views on this stretch of two conspicuous monuments: Wainman’s Pinnacle on the edge of Earl Crag, possibly, argue historians, commemorating the Battle of Waterloo; and Lund’s Tower, a folly put up to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee by James Lund of Malsis Hall.
The gradient steepens in an area of ruinous farmsteads and after crossing Andrew Gutter the Way contours round Eller Hill to the waterfall at Lumb Head. Curving north, the trail takes a walled track and green lane down to Lower Summer House farm with its miscellany of livestock. Below, a track then a field path lead out to the A6068 near Ickornshaw village.
Turn left then, just before the Black Bull pub, turn down right and at the lower road turn right again. The Way now bears left past the church, heading roughly northwards to Middleton’s terraced houses, joining Gill Lane which descends to cross Gill Bridge in a delightful wooded hollow. Once over you turn sharp left then right up hillside meadows near Low Stubbing. Straightforward field paths lead up to the left of High Stubbing and on to Cowling Hill Lane. Almost opposite to the right, take the lane past Over House and at a sharp right bend keep straight on over a stile. With no complications the Way drops to cross Surgill Beck, rises again to pass Woodhead Farm and finally forks right to descend sharply down by a wall into Lothersdale.
OTHER CONNECTING TRAILSSnuggling in a deep cleft of the hills, Lothersdale remains hidden until you are almost upon it, its preserved textile mill chimney peeping first into view. There are B&Bs here, as well as a pub – the Hare and Hounds – a post office and several groups of distinctive old houses. The village represents the end of a long succession of bleak and, at times, arduous moorland crossings; wounds can now be licked in anticipation of easy-going, pastoral walking in Craven and Airedale on the threshold of the Yorkshire Dales.
Haworth to Hebden Bridge Walk: This 9 mile (14.5km) route is coincident with the Pennine Way between Walshaw Dean Middle Reservoir and Top Withins.
Bronte Way: Extended in 1992, this popular 40 mile (64km) route joins the Pennine Way on the descent into the Worth valley and along Ponden Reservoir’s south shore. The trail draws in most of the sites associated with the Bronte family.
Start: Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire (SD 805340)
Finish: Oakwell Hall, West Yorkshire (SE 217271)
OS Landranger Sheets: 103, 104
Waymarks: Posts bearing the Bronte Way name.
Bronte Round: Another, shorter route on moorland, riverside and farmland paths linking the main Bronte sites. 23 miles (37km).
Start and Finish: Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire (SD 992272)
OS Landranger Sheets: 103, 104
Watersheds Walk: A 25 miles (40km) high-level circuit of the moors around the Worth valley.
Start and Finish: Keighley Railway Station, West Yorkshire (SE 065413)
OS Landranger Sheet: 104
Trans-Pennine Walk: A high quality, scenic route of 54 miles (87km) linking the western Lancashire Pennines with Yorkshire’s Bronte Country to the east. The trail joins the Pennine Way from Stoodley Pike to Hebden Bridge and again at Top Withins en route for Haworth.
Start: Adlington, Lancashire (SD 610130)
Finish: Haworth, West Yorkshire (SE 030372)
OS Landranger Sheets: 103, 104, 109
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