Return to Saltaire

Saturday 15th April 2023

After three days spent resting at home I was keen to do some more walking after the weather that had brought me home earlier in the week had cleared and also to make use of my previously booked train ticket, so I caught a train back to Saltaire and got off at exactly the same time as I had seven days earlier. The weather had not looked good during my journey north, but during the short train journey from Leeds I could see some breaks in the clouds that promised better and at least it wasn’t raining. From the railway station I made my way past the enormous, old mill buildings of Saltaire and to the foot of a wooded hillside where I found the Shipley Glen Tramway, which I had learnt about during my previous three days at home. Unfortunately it only runs on a Sunday so instead of riding it I just walked up the path beside it through delightful woodland that was decorated with wood anemones and ramson whose sweet garlic smell filled the air while the leaves covered the floor, including across the tracks of the tramway. At the top of the incline I followed a road to the Old Glen House where I turned steeply downhill to reach the route of the Dales High Way at a point that I must have passed almost exactly seven days earlier. However, I didn’t stay on the Dales High Way for long as I soon veered off to drop down to the bottom of Shipley Glen, which I was keen to explore as I had been frustrated the week before when the Dales High Way began to climb out of the valley.

 

 

I had a lovely stroll up the valley beside the Loadpit Beck over muddy ground with the sun shining overhead through the bare trees and soon I had worked up a sweat that prompted me to strip down to my baselayer. This walk through the woodland was very therapeutic for me, below the crags that I had walked above the week before, and more than justified my effort in coming all this way even if it had only been for this walk through Shipley Glen. I kept to the Loadpit Beck and branched away from the Dales High Way, now following the route of Welcome Way, which is a circular walk in West Yorkshire that links the communities of Baildon, Bingley, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Otley. This took me over the hill and back down into a housing estate on the edge of Bingley where I left the Welcome Way and took a muddy path that led me down to the bottom of Airedale where I came upon the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. I had reached the canal just above Five Rise Locks, which is the steepest flight of locks in the country with a gradient of one in five and I couldn’t resist taking some pictures although the area was so popular it was difficult to not have someone in the shot. After resuming my walk along the canal I began to think about lunch so soon I left the canal and climbed up to a road where I went looking for a fish & chip shop.

 

 

After eating my lunch I proceeded through the centre of Bingley and over the River Aire onto a lane that climbed out of the valley. I was now on the route of a walk that I had recently found on Komoot.com called “Ireland Bridge in Bingley – Harden Beck/Beckfoot Lane loop from Saltaire”, which seems to be a rather clumsy title but was an good trail. I had crossed the river over Ireland Bridge and now I was skirting the edge of St. Ives Country Park, though unfortunately the trail didn’t take me inside. I was mindful of the fact that I had a train to catch and so I pondered the necessity of diverting through the park, but ultimately this proved to be unnecessary and I kept to the trail. At Harden Moor I turned south to cross the moor, which wasn’t looking at its best as the skies were now covered in cloud and it was the wrong time of year for the heather to be in flower. Once across Harden Moor I descended all the way down to the Cow House Beck and the Millennium Way. A steep climb through Goitstock Wood brought me to the top of the escarpment where I followed a very muddy path that may not have been great for me but was lined with celandines which provided me with some compensation for the hardship.

 

 

The Millennium Way was a sure guide for me over a road, across a stream, steeply through more woodland and across grassy fields. A steep descent through Ruin Bank Wood brought me to a golf course and the Harden Beck where I found Beckfoot Lane, which provided me with easy walking and helped me maintain a brisk pace so I could catch my train. Soon I came alongside the River Aire and I followed this under Cottingley Viaduct and eventually back onto the canal a short distance from the railway station in Saltaire. This felt like a good walk with good weather where the sun made welcome appearances several times throughout the walk. I couldn’t help thinking that this walk was not how I’d originally planned to end my holiday as I should have been returning from the Yorkshire Dales, but the weather and my own health had intervened. Even though my holiday had not gone to plan, I can’t really say that it had been a bad week. I did benefit from being at home and relaxing for three days and it could be argued that in future I need to tone down my holiday plans and deliberately plan some downtime, as after all, I’m not as young as I once was.