Burley Park to Headingley via the Meanwood Valley 07/04/23

10.9 miles, via Headingley, Woodhouse Ridge, Buslingthorpe, Sugarwell Hill Park, Miles Hill,

 Meanwood (village), Meanwood Park, Meanwood (wood), Scotland Wood, Five Arches, 

  Adel Woods, Adel, Weetwood, Far Headingley, Beckett Park, and Queenswood

My N-th pair of Boots
is ready to hit the trail!

A seemingly early Easter weekend, arriving at that point in the year where you would start to expect the sir temperature to start to rise and the Sprig warmth comes on gives us the second opportunity to attempt to restart the walking year for 2023, heading out to where we last dropped feet in Season 12, and also donning my new Skechers boots for the first time, with an unusual sort of route in mind, which might give them an opportunity to demonstrate their all-terrain versatility as we go in search of the hidden green valley that hides in the middle of Leeds, while also dramatically splitting the city in half. So for Good Friday's stroll, we return to Burley Park, deep in terraced Leeds, with a proper mileage in mind for the start of the third walking month of the year, alighting the train at 10.35 and immediately setting course north-ish for the long uphill sweep of Beechwood Crescent, around the edge of my old stomping grounds in the first decade of full time residence in West Yorkshire, tracking up through the allotment gardens beyond and over the railway via the high bridge on St Michael's Lane, and hanging a left to join the footpath that skirts both Headingley RLFC stadium and the Cricket ground on the way up to Kirkstall Lane. Passing below the shadow of what's no longer called the Carnegie pavilion, we pass the Cornerstone Baptist church and the run of stores and that surround the sadly lost Lounge Cinema, before the B6157 meets the A660 Otley Road by the Arndale centre and our no easterly trajectory takes us onto the least of the crossroads' routes as Wood lane leads into Headingley's district of Victorian villas and student flats as we crest over toward the edge of the Meanwood Valley, betting the grand old reveal of Leeds's hidden valley from below Ridge Terrace before we join the path high wooded path that runs along the top of Woodhouse Ridge.

Beechwood Crescent, Burley Park.

Headingley RLFC Stadium.

The late and lamented Lounge cinema, Headingley.

Arriving above the Meanwood Valley, Woodhouse Ridge.

It's a route that we first tramped a decade ago, when we cross country-ed to Windermere, and you'd not venture much has changed in the intervening years as the canopy of trees covers our south-easterly press, until you note that old James Baillie flats complex has been completely replaced and there's a lot of wood carved features among the trees on the elevated path as it leads us behind the Leeds City Academy and the back terraces of wood house on the eastern edge of the plateau as we descend gradually above the Meanwood Road, behind the Wharfedale Avenue terraces and coming down to meet it among the post-industrial tangle at Buslingthorpe. Cross by the Primrose inn and the Njoy student flats in the Carr Mills complex, joining Buslingthorpe Lane as it crosses Meanwood Beck, just upstream from the North Brewing brewery (naturally), before splitting off onto the woodland path on the eastern side of the valley, following the old Scott Wood Lane northwesterly as it leads up through the Sugarwell Hill park, rising us above the Meanwood Valley Urban farm and settling us by a fine reverse angled view towards the city centre that you'd not see from any other viewpoint before we are lead on through the woods that sit behind the estate house that lodge along Potternewton Crescent. A bench provides as a spot to contemplate our view as we look towards Headingley and it's high points of St Michael's church and Hinsley Hall, and looking beyond the route we just walked towards upper Airedale before we carry on, out to the B6159 by the Miles Hill estate, feeling fortified by my early lunch, and pleased that local folk use these paths for exercising their dogs, we land by the Miles Hill estate and take the startling downhill drop of Potternewton Lane, a climb that wasn't so obvious when walked up a few years back, and the woodlands walking is interrupted as we come down to cross Stain Beck.

In the woods on Woodhouse Ridge.

The Wharfedale terraces, Meanwood Road.

Meanwood beck, Buslingthorpe.

The view to Leeds City Centre, Sugarwell Hill park.

The view towards Headingley.

Descending Miles Hill, with Potternewton Lane.

Also the Stainbeck Road, as Urban Leeds rules once again as we come down Stainbeck Avenue, to meet Meanwood Road on the corner by Aldi, through the land of contrasts that has a bar and café culture going on the B6157 corner, across from the Methodist chapel and Waitrose store, but not the Beckett's Arms of local infamy, where Green Road is joined, leading us towards the stoned terraced corner of the urban village, with the Tannery Square forming an appealing composition ahead of the CofE Primary school, and the turn into Meanwood Park where we are carried along the tree-lined track among the open fields. We are revisiting the trajectories of 2013 again as we come upon Hustlers Row, the terrace by Meanwood Beck on the edge of the Meanwood itself, carrying on upstream on a different set of paths as we pass below the quarry delves and above the stream as it flows down into the city, keeping under the shade of the trees as we seek the higher path that leads up to the cottage cluster at Meanwood Grove, feeling super-rural despite being a stone's throw away from the Meanwood Hall redevelopment and falling within the outer ring road, which become audibly apparent as we drop down  to meet the picnic area where we pause to refuel again. The 2013 route will be met properly as we join the Meanwood valley trail entering its upper half, from Parkside Road, across the stream and up to Smithy corn Mills, shadowing and then passing under A6120 and entering Scotland Wood as it squeezes its way through the narrow depression of the beck, where we stick to the west bank despite there being evidence of a better built path on the eastern side, which we miss the way down to as we follow the undulating track as it leads its way up to the Seven Arches aqueduct, the hidden gem of industrial engineering in this city, still plainly visible thanks to the lack of Spring vegetation over growth. 

Meanwood Methodist Chapel.

Tannery Square, Meanwood.

Meanwood Park.

Quarry Delves in the Meanwood.

Meanwood Grove.

Meanwood Beck, Scotland Wood.

On the clear path, Scotland Wood.

Seven Arches Aqueduct.

Back on the east bank, we enter Adel Woods, with the path getting rougher as it rises up and away from the immediate stream-side, elevating us up to the Slabbering Baby Spring, sitting by the path- side across from the enigmatic ruins of Mill Fall cottage, where the intervening stream flowing down from Alwoodley and Moortown is passed over before we rise among the rhododendron bushes that surround Adel Pond and follow the track as it regains its purpose as it leads around the fields of the Old Leodiensians sports club, and below Adel Crag as it lead out to Stair Foot Lane. Take a turn west here, dropping down to our final passage over Meanwood Beck as we reach the upper end of Adel, as far out of the city as we'll be venturing today, and while we could visit St John's church again, like we famously did 20 years back, we need to head back now as the limbs are starting to tire and a direct route is offered along the Long Causeway, which has ancient pavement but little apparent purpose in its vintage as the suburban back gardens of the closes along Sir George Martin Way butt up to it, at least until we're past the CofE primary school where the estate walls and lodge houses start to sneak into the landscape. Progressing south, directly into the sun, it all starts to become a bit a of a feature as the grounds of Victorian villas arrive among the suburbia, with most of the houses lost until we're right down at the bottom of the lane by the Belle Vue and Oak Lea complexes, ahead of passing back over the A6120 Ring Road again, and joining Weetwood Lane as it passes the Hope Pasture equine sanctuary, and rises back into the outer suburbia of Leeds once again, across the way from the developments around Weetwood and Oxley Halls, all above the Hollies botanical gardens, which had somehow escaped my attention until today. 

Slabbering Baby Spring, Adel Wood.

Evergreen Bushes in Adel Wood.

Stair Foot Lane and the final passage over Meanwood Beck.

Long Causeway, Adel.

Oak Lea Hall, Adel.

Suburbia and Estate landscape, Weetwood.

Weetwood Grange looms large above the rooftops in a Gothicky fashion as we are drawn down above the western side of the Meanwood valley, among the suburban growth of several vintages as we come down towards Far Headingley, passing out onto the Otley Road again by the Three Horseshoes, finding the the revellers on the Otley Run are already out in force around it and the New Inn down the way, with at all getting a bit much for some of them already, judging by the police in attendance, and it might be noted that the Cottage Road cinema endures still, up its side street across from out route shift off the A660, up St Chad's Drive. This suburban lane leads us up to Beckett Park, adjacent to the campus of Leeds Beckett University, the former Leeds Met (and Poly), where their grounds are not strictly publicly accessible, but can still be traversed, with the many teaching and residential blocks developed on the grounds of the old Kirkstall Grange, which still endures among them, with our route leading into the woods beyond where the curious folly of the Victoria Arch can be found, commemorating said Queen's visit in 1858, out of sight among the trees behind the Landscape Resource Centre and on the edge of the fall down into the Aire valley, and only to be found if you go looking for it. The way out of the woods is by far the most complex portion of the trip, almost guessing our way down to the access point among the council houses onto Queenswood Road, beyond which access to a path toward our finish line can't be found among the boxy houses the Woodbridges until we pass down to the side of the Church Lane allotment gardens and around the Queenswood Social clubs playing fields, drawing us in next to the railway line to Harrogate and surely down to Headingley station, barely a mile out from where we started, and closing the day at 3.25pm, happily breaching the 10 mile barrier but really feeling it in my muscles having not attempted such a mileage in a long while.

Weetwood Grange looms above the Suburbs.

The Three Horseshoes, Far Headingley.

Beckett Park campus, Leeds Beckett University.

The Victoria Arch, Beckett Park.

Trying to find the correct path, Queenswood Drive.

Headingley Station, barely a mile from where we started!

Post-Script: Despite best intentions to make the most of my long Easter Weekend, it look like that's going to be it for the four day break as all positive attempts to recharge on Saturday came to naught after going out on a late evening trip out from home to Bruntcliffe in a hope of doing a bit of Mercury Spotting, tearing uphill and away from Morley when the skies appeared clear enough for some planetary viewing, only to find a low bank of cloud in the west obscuring my sightline, meaning that my rapid discharge of accumulated energy was spent to no good end, and put me to bed on Easter Sunday morning, needing to recharge again when the urban trail was due to be approached once more...

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5959 miles

2023 Total: 36.8 miles

Up Country Total: 5,478.3 miles

Solo Total: 5616.4 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 4548.8 miles

Next Up: A Stroll to the Chip Shop?