6 Mile Circular Walk - Oakworth | Haworth | Penistone Hill | Mytholmes

Distance: 6 miles

Ascent: 676 ft

Walking: Andrew

Weather: Sunny spells, warm

OS Map: OL21 - South Pennines

Starting point: Station Road, Oakworth

Photography: Andrew using Nikon D610 / 24 -70 mm f2.8 

A beautiful spring day for a walk from home in Oakworth, through Haworth and out onto Penistone Hill with stunning views across The Worth Valley and to Pendle Hill in the distance. 

Tree-lined Station Road is always great place to start a walk, although having the steep climb at the end of the walk can be a challenge.

Halfway down the road, I turned onto the hedge-lined footpath that leads to a walled path down the hill to Vale Mill and what is known locally as Hoot Corner (for obvious reasons). Continuing up Mytholmes Lane, I turned onto the rough track (still Mytholmes Lane) at Vale Fold Cottages (featured in the paper chase in The Railway Children film) then through the beautiful iron kissing gate into Murgatroyd Wood.

Here the narrow path follows Bridgehouse Beck upstream to the derelict Ebor Mills, currently occupied by a flock of pigeons but soon to be converted into flats.

Following the road to Haworth Station, the lowest point of the walk (in terms of altitude, obviously), it was noticeable how quiet everywhere was due to the COVID-19 restrictions, barely a car on the road and just the occasional walker or jogger. Crossing the footbridge over the railway line and the climb began up the steep cobbles of Butt Lane. Thankfully, the low wall around Haworth Central Park made a convenient resting place a couple of times and the view across the park was lovely.

At the top of the lane is a short very steep section that brings you out at The Fleece pub, a favourite watering hole of mine, on Haworth's famous cobbled Main Street. Sadly, the pub and all the shops were closed due to the pandemic and there wasn't a soul around. Normally the street would be buzzing with tourists most days so to see it empty was very strange and quite sad. 

Walking up the steep cobbles past all the empty shops & cafes with the rooks in the nearby churchyard cawing loudly was quite an experience, very atmospheric.

At the top of the hill I turned onto Church Street, past the church and into the churchyard. Again, the atmosphere was turned up to 11, despite it being a warm sunny day. The churchyard is full of row upon row of huge Victorian tombstones and is quite overgrown. The Bronte Parsonage, Charlotte, Anne and Emily wrote their famous novels in in the mid-1800s, can be seen through the trees and the sound of the rooks overhead gave the whole place a bleak, gothic feel. It's not often you get to soak up the atmosphere of the place like this.

Taking the footpath out of the churchyard, I was immediately in open countryside with contented cattle grazing beautiful wildflower meadows.Still climbing, the path leads out onto moorland on Penistone Hill, where, on finally reaching the trig point at the top, the views in all directions are amazing. From here you can see Oakworth to the north east, Oxenhope to the south, Stanbury to the north west, as well as the wilds of Haworth Moor to the west and Top Withens (Wuthering Heights) and Pendle Hill in the distance. Penistone Hill is the site of a number of disused stone quarries and is littered with huge rocks and deep pits, some forming ponds, which give some great foreground interest for photos.

Having explored the length and breadth of the hill, I headed back towards Haworth, heading along West Lane and turning down North Street, where I spotted some beautiful old insurance plaques on the wall of one of the houses. 

Reaching the old toll house down the hill, I turned down the rough track of Mytholmes Lane, which goes over the top of Mytholmes Tunnel, another famous location from The Railway Children (it's where they filmed the paper chase, the walking trees and where the children sat on the fence to wave to the passengers on the trains).

This brought be out back at Vale Fold Cottages, from where I retraced my steps back to Hoot Corner, then continued on the road past Vale Mill to Oakworth Station. No steam trains today or for the foreseeable future, sadly. Let's hope this lockdown and pandemic are over soon so we can start enjoying these things again.