From the winter-bleached grassland of Clough Head Hill down to the lingering autumnal colours of Hebden Dale this is an area of delightful contrasts. But it's a surprise to find you're walking on a railway. High above Hebden Water a narrow gauge track once carried the "Paddy Mails", trainloads of stone quarried by Irish navvies building the reservoirs at Walshaw Dean. The railway itself is long gone, but the track, now covered in silver birch trees, still clings to the hillside of this beautiful wooded valley.
LOCATION: Three miles north-west of Hebden Bridge
START: Hardcastle Crags NT car park on the Widdop road, 2 miles beyond Heptonstall
Grid ref: SD969297 Postcode: HX7 7AZ
DISTANCE: 5 miles
GRADE: Moderate
TIME: 3 hours
MAP: Explorer OL - South Pennines Landranger 103
REFRESHMENTS: Packhorse Inn
EN ROUTE: Pennine Way, Gorple, Graining Water, Widdop Gate, Gibson Mill
This walk was originally published by
The Manchester Evening News