Holme Valley Circular #2 - Holme to Berry Brow 26/08/19

8.7 miles, via Digley & Bilberry reservoirs, Austonley, Hogley, Brook Wood & Black Sike, 

 Upperthong, Wickens Dike, Netherthong, Deanhouse, Honley, Lower Thirstin, Magdale, 

  Mag Wood, and Armitage Bridge.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#2 at Holme.

Back to the trail on Bank Holiday Monday morning, and there's absolutely no way to get back out to Holme for a start that could be considered early, as thanks to Sunday bus timetables and the most awkward of travel connections, it's going to be a two hour trip out by train and bus (the uphill ride on the #314 taking as long as the downhill trip did, incidentally) and we can't get going until we've alighted at 10.20am, with the wall of heat hitting you hard, and making you grateful that this isn't going to be anything like a long day on the return leg. It's not often that a day's walk starts with the feeling of peak temperature in the air already, but that's where we are as we set off away from Holme's idyll at the habitable limit of the upper Holme Valley, heading up Meal Hill Road but choosing to not duplicate more footfalls on the Kirklees Way route and instead stick to the lane as it passes out of the village past the school which still endures with possibly the tiniest catchment area, and out into the moorland fields beyond Meal Hill farm, where we crest around the hillside with a fine view downstream. We'll split off Issues Lane, and its alternate route onto Black Hill and instead carry on down Further End Lane, where no right of way endures since the creation of Digley reservoir severed it and the Lumbank farms passed out of the landscape, but I'll strike a blow for reviving old paths as it heads towards the water's perimeter path, with the track petering out as we meet Intake Gutter and strike across the rough path to meet the Kirklees Way path again, which steeply descends as it enters the wood at the reservoir's heel, well illustrating the challenge that comes with any circumnavigation of an artificial lake. Bottom out at the dam of the much older Bilberry reservoir, where the colours of the cloughs beyond are much brighter than when seen in 2014, splitting from the rising route of the Kirklees way path again as we continue onto the north shore of Digley Reservoir, which still show traces of the landscape that it consumed during its construction in the 1950s, as we are mostly kept away from the shore behind the welcome shade of trees before coming round to the remnants of Gilbriding Lane, which gets increasingly overgrown as we rise among the quarries that it once served to the lofty vantage point above the reservoir and its dam.

Holme Valley Circular #1 - Berry Brow to Holme 24/08/19

16 miles, via Cold Hill, Castle Hill, Molly Carr Wood, Royd House Wood, Farnley Tyas, 

 Farnley Moor, Height Green, Thurstonland, Haw Cliff, Fulstone, Gate Foot, Hirst Brow, 

  High Brow, Jackson Bridge, Hepworth, Boshaw Whams reservoir, Snittle Road, Bare Bones, 

   Hades plantation, Copthurst moor, Dobb Dike clough, Crow Hill, Riding Wood reservoir, 

    Yateholme reservoir, Holme Woods, and Gill Hey.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!
#1 at Berry Brow.

It seems that my cursing of this Summer's weather has brought us an exceptionally warm August Bank Holiday weekend, and I'm not going to complain when I've got 24+ miles of walking on the Holme Valley Circular to come, but it's a frustrating contrast to the conditions that I got this time last year when any sunshine on the peaks of Upper Wharfedale would have been appreciated, but we'll take it when it's here even if an early start will need to be in order as the outbound leg of this trip has shown up to be a much longer route than I had anticipated. It seems that the Holme Valley circular is the forgotten route of Kirklees district as no route guide is in print and there's not a single sign or waymarker for it anywhere on the ground, with only the OS map showing up its route on the OL288 plate, and that will have to be our sole navigator as we ride out to Berry Brow station, on the edge of greater Huddersfield and amazingly still not the last station to be visited on the Penistone line, where we alight at 8.20am, surely ahead of all but the most dedicated dog walkers of the borough. So away into the morning haze, and on down Birch Road past the school at this smart outer perimeter of town, with out first destination of the day silhouetted by the low sun, as our trail takes us over Bridge Street and then up Lady House Lane, with its stepped terraces and improbably located suburban outliers along its steep uphill drag, where we soon split off for a field walk, through the damp long grass. We are getting fine views westwards, though, across the wooded cleft of the upper Holme Valley towards Meltham Moor to the fringes of the Colne Valley to the north, and they are views that expand impressively as we gain altitude, up the side of Cold Hill, though the path route is vague as we scratch our way up to the track at the top, which takes us through the cluster of farmsteads at its crest, with a direct line ahead towards Castle Hill. A rougher track ascends us up to Ashes Lane, where small farmsteads cling to the high ridge edge which we have to look down from, towards the spread of Huddersfield below which feels a lot less alien than it did five years back, but still not quite familiar enough, which positively basks in the morning sunshine nonetheless, as does the view to the southwest and the upper Holme Valley, where so many miles will be put down further into this trip.

Denby Dale to Slaithwaite 17/08/19

16.2 miles, via Dunkirk Crossroads, Lower Denby, Upper Denby, Ingbirchworth 

 & the reservoir, Brown's Edge, Wood Royd Hill, Gate Head, Barnside, Hepworth, Scholes, 

  Holmfirth (Gully, Bank and Bridge Fold), Netherthong, Wilshaw, Calmlands, Meltham, 

   Holt Head, and Kitchen Clough.

August so far could easily have convinced me that The End of Summer has arrived a month early, as the cooling temperatures and constant reappearances of rain could fit neatly into the turning weeks of September, and even the yellowing of the evening sunshine seems to be coming on more quickly than usual, all of which have me carefully picking my routes to fit with the weather, and dropping plans to do anything on the open moorlands after the rains have been hammering down throughout Friday afternoon and evening. So we'll no be taking the planned trip onto Meltham Moor this weekend, and instead pull up a walk off the reserve list, one which should be mostly keeping us on the roads and giving us a chance to put down some miles at a decent speed after last Sunday's debacle, riding the rails out to Denby Dale, and choosing a later start so the mornings drizzles can work themselves out before we've gotten too far underway, alighting at 9.45am under skies that are much glummer than projected, and take a few minutes to shelter as the rain has its last fall for the day before we set off. We seek the footpath that leads down to the A636 Wakefield Road by the Dale Inn, passing more developments of Suburbia in the Countryside as we go, crossing the main road to head down Norman Road to meet the Springfield Mill complex and the river Dearne at the valley bottom before heading up the valley side and eastwards with Dearneside Road, among the old cottages of the village and below the suburban growth that has filled out the southern bank of the valley. As we meander our way around to Miller Hill and the rising road out of town, the geographically minded among you will have noticed that we are heading away from our intended destination, and the simple reason for that it after having made so many routes around this part of the West Riding in the late Spring and early Summer, it feels like time to take one victory lap around the area before we put it away for a while, and that's why we are on a bit of a broad circuit up and out of the Dearne valley as the day starts to warm and brighten. We're not quite getting the contextual views that I crave as we make our way uphill, as Denby Dale viaduct manages to hide its considerable bulk from the viewpoints at this remove and so we focus on going up through the green fields and past the isolated, and wonderfully named, Romb Pickle terrace on the way to the Dunkirk Crossroads, filling in a blank on the map that will be the theme for much of the first half of this excursion.

Colne Valley Circular 11/08/19

13.4 miles, from Golcar, via Linthwaite (Hoyle House and Lower Clough), Banks Brow,

 Kitchen Clough, Yew Tree, Top o' the Hill, Lingards Wood, Holme Moor brow, 

  Binn Moor brow, Binns, Bank Bottom, Marsden, Huck Hill, Slaithwaite Moor, Reaps Hill, 

   Scout Wood, Merry Dale, Ainley Place, Wilberlee, Campinot Wood, Crimble Clough, 

    Westwood Edge, Bolster Moor, and Heath House wood.

Another Summer Saturday drops from the schedule due to heavy rainfall, as if the peaking of national all-time temperatures in late July was the cue for everything to go downhill and render the remainder of the season changeable and rather chilly, and so we are shunted onto a Sunday trip again, with my options limited by the issues that come with transport connections, and that's why we end up on an early bus ride out to western Huddersfield to start the Colne Valley Circular walk from Golcar, not a part of the world I've travelled into so far due to its distinct lack of railway stations. So alight the #301 bus by St John's church, in this village that has now been largely consumed into the neighbouring town's suburbia and we make our way to the Colne Valley Museum, where we'll have a 9.05am jump off, elevated above the valley side and surrounded by the many cottages of the domestic weaving industries of the early 19th centuries, and set off with the guidebook in hand, ready to be informed as to why so many houses have multiple storeys and large upstairs windows as we head down the steep Carr Top Lane, because many had their workshops located in the part of the cottage where maximum daylight for their workshops could be gained, it seems. This guide, which I've had my shelf for over 5 years, seems keen to inform me about everything there is to see on this route, and provides detail about the Sunday School and the lost Baptist Chapel on Chapel Lane before we hit the path by the burial ground that seems far to slick and slippery for comfort, descending us down towards the railway lines, where two short viaducts span a descending brook, one a disused relic of much busier times on the L&NWR's Leeds to Manchester lines, which are passed under to hit the soft track that descends to the valley floor under the cover of trees. Meet the Huddersfield Narrow canal by lock 15E, which has us tied to a familiar trail again, albeit one that's nearly 7 years old, and the route guide would send us along the towpath, but I'm ready for a deviation even at this early stage, which will take us down by the side of the Colne, which charges angrily after the rains of the last two days, along the path on the edge of the flood plain where the long grass will quickly saturate one's trousers, taking us around the Linthwaite's famous Titanic mills, named for their 1912 completion date, rather than their massive size, and our route goes straight through their carpark, where the Titanic Spa and many apartments now dwell within the site.

Hadfield to Marsden via Black Hill 03/08/19

15 miles, via Padfield, Runal Intake, Devil's Elbow, Torside Crossing, Torside Reservoir,   
 Crowden Great Brook Clough, Laddow Rocks, Grains Moss, Dun Hill, Black Hill, 
  Black Dike Head, Good Bent, Dean Clough, Wessenden Head, Hey Cote Hill, 
   Hey Brinks, Rigg Shaw, Rams Clough, Binns and Bank Bottom.

After my Summer Jollies, it seemed wise to take a weekend off, as I'd been going at it on the trail for every weekend since the middle of April, and once back in work we experienced the most horrifying temperature spike, pushing temperatures up past 30C, which were then followed by the most dramatic shift downwards as the last weekend of July came around, more than 12C cooler and with both days blighted with rain that fell for many hours, scuppering any plans for getting out regardless of how modestly they might have been scaled. As it happened, we probably wouldn't have gotten out as it was, as an impromptu drinks get together was had on the Friday evening of the 26th July with my good friends IH & AK as we needed to have one last turn around with M&SW before they move away to Edinburgh at the end of August, which was a nice break from routine and had me snoozing off the booze for much of Saturday as the rain pelted down in a way that seemed entirely inappropriate. As M&S had scheduled up a final session for the next Saturday along, being available for that would be appropriate having enjoyed 23+ years of friendship with them, but a return ticket to Hadfield was starting to burn a hole in my pocket, with the August weather looking just a weird as July's, getting in my statement walk of the year, the one with West Yorkshire's actual summit in it, had to take priority, involving a 2+ hour trip out to the part of Derbyshire that isn't threatened with being underwater after a week of storms, a journey that would be so much easier if we could get the TPEs to stop at Guide Bridge and not have to make the connection at Manchester Piccadilly. So alight at 9.40am, feeling that it's slightly odd that it should be here, about as far south as is possible, that I have chosen to make my contact point on the west side of the Pennine divide, admiring the once mainline station that now sits at the lonely end of its branch line, starting out be retracing steps to the Trans Pennine Trail, admiring the views over the suburban rooftops to the moors to the north of Longdendale before passing under the old Woodhead Line at Platt Street bridge. This leads us into Padfield, among the old terraces and newer arrivals that have clustered around the largely still industrial site of Hadfield Mill, rising with the long uphill terraces of Post Street, which seem to be the way of such things on the west side of the Pennines, heading up past the former Wesleyan Chapel to meet the old rural village on Padfield Main Road, around the Peels Arms inn and displaying a whole wad of rural charm on the lane up to the Whitehouse Farm B&B.