Ponden & Keighley Moor, Wednesday 22nd April, leader Jan B

This morning, 19 hardy walkers met at a sunny but blustery Ponden Reservoir. As everyone had arrived in good time we had an early start, following the south shore of the reservoir along the Pennine Way. After short uphill we passed the Grade II historic Ponden Hall, and then dropped down to the end of the reservoir.

Here we crossed a road, then uphill on the PW, towards Crag Bottom. A short stretch of road walking then took us back up onto the PW at Crag Top. It was then a steady uphill for a while, stopping for elevenses at a disused delph (quarry) where we enjoyed some shelter from the cool breeze. Continuing on to Old Bess Hill, where we took a right hand track, towards Keighley Moor Reservoir. Here we joined the Millenium Way, following the tarmaced road down to Morkin Bridge. A brief uphill on a road took us to Slitheroford Farm, where we continued along the MW following Dean Beck. The path lead us along the valley, navigating around ‘Bottoms Farm’ where we all admired the fancy building work going on – which had Yorkshire and Moorish influences!

After reaching Todley Hall Road we picked up an old quarry track which led us down to Newsholme Dean. A suitable sheltered spot was found for lunch, with great views down the valley. After lunch we continued down to the valley floor, where some chose to cross the clapper bridge across Dean Beck.

A steep climb up through the woods eventually bought us out through fields, giving extensive views of the surrounding landscape. After a short walk along Broad Head Lane, we turned south, then across more fields to where our leader pointed out the impressive wall – much to the amusement of certain individuals!

It was all downhill from here! From Hare Hill we dropped down to Oldfield then down again, through fields to Ponden Mill, where it was a short walk back up the rough track to the cars.

Statistics:

Distance: 9.6 ‘fairly mud free’ miles,

Total ascent: 1700ft

Thank you to all who came – I hope you all enjoyed the walk as much as I did. Thanks to Steven D for his super photos, and to Aly for back marking (and not intervening too much!).

Walk writeup posted by Aly.

‘If you wish to see a static view of the pics all in one go, then click here.’

Continuously running slideshow below – you can see it full screen by clicking in top left of picture