Mytholmroyd Bubble Walk #6 17/04/21

5 miles, from Cragg Road, via Hoo Hole, Dauber Bridge, Clough Foot, Birks Hall, 

 Sutcliffe Wood, Hollin Hey Wood & Bank, Stake Lane, Windle Hill, Nab End Quarry, 

  Miry Lane, Stake Lane, Long Lane, and Hoo Hole. 

Post-Easter holidays, and Post second Covid vaccine dose, seems like a good spot in the year to return to my Support Bubble in Calderdale, which isn't point that we would've imagined being in at this point in the season when we last convened to flush 2020 away, more than three months ago, but with Spring resolutely refusing to be sprung, a sociable get together with my good friends IH & AK seem like a good option for a couple of evenings, to get in the necessary drinks and dinners while bracketing another bubble walk, while otherwise taking it easy before the year starts to get serious again. For them that means getting psyched up for trying to bring a school year to a satisfactory conclusion in only three months, while also organizing an examination regime on the top of it, so it's natural enough that landing with them on the Friday evening disappears into a quantity of red meat and wine, ahead of us all feeling the need to sleep off the effects, and thus Saturday morning means a late rise, and no option for getting out until after lunchtime, and there's no trouble with that as there's still plenty of fat to be chewed between us, and another day of early chill to be cleared before we head out. So it's away from our base on Cragg Road at 1.25pm, as getting out of doors in the British countryside seems to be a better way of patriotically expressing ourselves than staying in to watch the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral, and we've a new location to visit a short distance from Mytholmroyd, unseen by my local friends despite having been resident for nearly 15 years, though it's proximity is offset by the altitude away to the southwest, and thus we have to take a long circuitous route to get to it, pushing away on the trajectory out of town to the south, to gain height gradually as we pass up Cragg Vale. Thus we head past Royds Ices, Hoo Hole Mill, and into the countryside, over Dauber Bridge and uphill, getting a good view of the passage of Cragg Brook through the still leafless trees, before passing around the caravan site that has already filled to available capacity with visitors and below the bowl of Broadhead Clough, and rising on beyond the Clough Foot farms and into the dramatic lower stretch of the valley, which still seems short of Spring colour until we meet the Cragg Vale community gardens with its riot of still ripe Daffodils, where we split off from the roadside.

Cragg Brook at Dauber Bridge.

The Birks Hall terraces.

The shallow ascent done, the steep climb starts as we rise among the Birks Hall terraces, perched up the hillside at the bottom end of the Cragg Vale village ribbon, and having started out southbound, we soon shift to heading back north as we meet another of the many ancient causeys of Calderdale, which has turned into a bit of a running joke between the three of us, with the one leading us into the bulk of the wooded bank on the east side of Cragg Vale. Into the mass of Sutcliffe Wood we head, and soon hit the rising track that slips between the two right of way paths, a good sneak route that's obvious on the ground but only known to local walkers, elevating us up among the birch trees and rocky outcrops at a consistently steep pitch, which proves to be a bit of a lung-burster, requiring a break or two to peer back across the valley through the sill bare canopy of the trees, before we hit the high path below Stocks Spring farm. Thus we land on the top edge of the woods, beneath the elevated apron of fields above Calderdale, and we continue north, getting to the viewpoint across from Broadhead Clough before we press on north, and reach into the upper limit of Hollin Hey woods, an entirely different sort of plantation of gnarly trees reaching down the steep bank side, as we trace the undulating path onwards, bringing us below Windle Hill farm and eventually popping us out of the tree cover to give us our first look upstream into high Calderdale. As we trace the rough path across the top of Hollin Hey bank, the view evolves, proving to be one that none of us have yet to tire of as we look across Mytholmroyd towards Heptonstall, Old Town Mill and the rising bulks of the moorlands, close and distant, in the northwest, as we press around to land high above our starting line far below and eventually come around to meet Stake Lane by that finger-post that indicates the previously mysterious path direction that we have just traversed. Of course, we've put in a lot of footfalls to avoid the steepest ascent from out of the town, and we can now push uphill on the partially buried and frequently damp sets of the high causey path of Stake Lane that leads us up to its eponymous farm, before off-roading it up the scrubby bank to meet Stannery Lane End and the high apron of moorland-ish fields above the Calder valley, which gives us our look back and our view forwards, as Nab End looms ahead on the not too distant southeastern horizon.

Sutcliffe Wood.

Hollin Hey Wood.

Mytholmroyd from Hollin Hey Bank.

Stake Lane, looking Down.

We lack a direct route over there though, and have to make a choice of paths, picking Windle Hill Lane as it head southwest, matching the route that we'd made both up and down Cragg Vale earlier, albeit much higher up now, ahead of making a decisive turn onto the bridleway that leads directly across the moorland altitude marker, hitting 300+m up for the first time in the season, before we meet Miry Lane and discover that none of us know how to access the quarry as it arrives ahead of us. I think it's a short stretch to the south, but my companions favour a longer stretch up the lane northbound to eventually meet a way through the wire fence onto the hillside access land, and turning south east to rise among the heather onto the Nab End of this up land, to finally land us above the former quarry that forms a deep pit ahead of us, where all paths seem accessible among the vertical slabs of gritstone and a clear way can be found into the chamber below. We can find climbable rock faces, secluded grottoes and much evidence of trail biking within the quarry, but evidence of the Millennium Garden is not forthcoming, as thus we find ourselves wandering into every available corner before we decide we need to find a higher vantage point, and elevate ourselves to find that there's a whole nother chamber to the south, which we steeply descend into among its many craggy faces to explore further, through the enclosure of sculptures remains hidden. Eventually, we have to decide to split up and hope for the best as one of us can surely locate it and then communicate the location to the other two, and thus we all head off in our own ways, with me finding that the main entrance was just about where I thought it was, while AK can claim the Millennium garden found, a little way along the northern edge path, between the two main chambers of the old quarry and well secluded, despite being only a short way up from Miry Lane, unseen when we previously passed below it. Definitely a location off the beaten track and really rather enigmatic, established by the Lawrence family of Far Moorside farm 21 years back, but only just landing on our cultural radar now, as it's not to be found on line in any particular amount of detail, with the identity of its sculptor still shrouded in mystery, but it's a labour of love for us to enjoy on this finally warm afternoon, keeping its quirk well out of sight high above the junction of the river Calder and the Cragg brook.

Nab End from Windle Hill.

Nab End Quarry, eastern chamber.

Nab End Quarry, western chamber.

The Millenium Garden.

All your secluded sculpture needs in one place!

It's also beyond the apex of my companions' usual 5k walking limit, but there's no realistic way of getting a lift homewards from high up here, and thus we have to make our own way down, which is by far the quicker option, striking back through the heather to exit the access land onto Miry Lane by the same route that we entered it, and high-tailing it off the moorland on the way down to Stake Park farm and the reveal of the eastwards reach of Calderdale, across Luddenden Dean towards the high edge of Halifax. Across Stannery Lane End again, and down to Stake Lane, again, showing up just how much of a wander we're really having as we make our way down to the staring bench at the junction over to the Scout Rock beacon, where we pause to absorb the view before making our way down the remainder of Stake Lane, down the rough and shaded path to meet the section that we rebuilt ahead of the newly installed flood management drain, where both the stepped hard pavement and the spread of loose gravel have made for some father unfriendly ascending conditions. At the road top, below Hall Bank, we again take the direct path down towards Cragg Vale, leading us onto the Long Lane path as it slices off the corner detour that would have come with a passage down into Mytholmroyd, continuing the shedding of height as we crash down to the industrial estate in the poultry farm, or at least that arrangement of buildings that looks like one, and pausing to look back up to the bank which we had passed high above only a short while earlier (showing just what a tangled knot of a route we've paced over 5 miles today), before hitting the switchback path into the woods below. The trees being still bare of leaves allows us another clear look at Cragg Brook as it flows into the town below Hoo Hole mill and behind the ice cream factory, and as we land back on Cragg Road, it's telling that the feeling of Spring has compelled us all to shed some of the layers that we headed out wearing, and having gotten a good limb-loosening up, we return to base for a 4pm finish, our appreciation of the peace and quiet of the countryside in tribute to the passing of Prince Philip done, and finding ourselves in need of cold drinks post-exercise for the first time this year.

The Downstream Calder from Miry Lane.

Stake Lane, looking Up.

Long Lane.

Cragg Brook at Hoo Hole Mill.

Saturday evening can be eased into after that, as we don't feel ourselves trapped by the need to engage ourselves with the lockdown activities that consumed us last year, and thus we cocktail our way into the early session, ahead of sitting down to Steak and Fries accompanied by more Red Wine and several turns of the 'I can't believe I ate the whole thing...' joke from The Simpsons, and then polishing off Lemon Meringue pie and a cheese board in quantity, while being entertained by Tampa Bay Rays baseball (tonking the Yankees 6-3) and closing the night with those Card Against Humanity again. There won't be another bubble walk for Sunday morning though, as we need to part ways after breakfast as everyone has things they need to be doing with their afternoons now, and hopefully we might not be needing the 'support bubble' concept at all as 2021 progresses, and maybe next time we get together, we'll be able to get out on the town as it were, as by then we'll all have been fully vaccinated and will be a secure as is plausible at that moment to hit a local pub, bar or restaurant without feeling intimidated by the renewed crowds and the continuing risks of Covid.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4875 miles
2021 Total: 132.9 miles
Up Country Total: 4412 miles
Solo Total: 4543.4 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3472.8 miles

Next Up: Revisiting the Lost Railways of the Spen Valley.