The Telegraph & Argus: Leisure News from across the Bradford district

Gilstead

The Saltaire and Shipley Glen area contains some wonderful walks. Many have featured in this column over the years but this is one of my favourites.

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Thruscross Reservoir

It’s strange to walk beside the calm surface of a reservoir, rippled only by swimming ducks, geese and the occasional rising trout, and remind yourself that beneath those 1,725 million gallons of cloud-reflecting water are the remains of a church, cottages, a school, country lanes and garden walls.

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Thornton-le-Dale

Walk in the Black Forest. Remember it? It was an orchestral hit in the 1960s for Horst Jankowski, and very catchy it was too.

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Water way to enjoy a week’s walking break!

There are some fine walks to be enjoyed around and between Yorkshire’s reservoirs. Yorkshire Water has steadily improved access to the land it controls and encourages people to make the most of it via various collections of walks leaflets and descriptions on its website.

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St Ives, Bingley

The St Ives estate above Bingley is a wonderful country park criss-crossed with footpaths and bridleways. It’s terrific walking territory, whether you want to limit yourself to a gentle stroll along the edge of Coppice Pond or strike off up to Druid’s Altar and gaze up the Aire Valley from on high.

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Greetland

Greetland isn’t the easiest place to find but once you get there it’s well worth a visit. We made the mistake of not turning off the A629 Halifax-Huddersfield road at Elland and as a result nearly found ourselves on the M62 while searching in vain for a Greetland sign.

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Harrogate

A short walk, this one, but packed with interest, ideal for children and with plenty of opportunities for bolt-on experiences along the route.

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Middleton Woods, Ilkley

Some places are worth visiting again and again. Middleton Woods above Ilkley is one of them, particularly at the height of the bluebell season when the ground between the trees is carpeted with flowers in full bloom and the air is sweet with their perfume.

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Bonsall

Last time, the walk was to Monsal in the Peak District. This week's goes to the similar-sounding Bonsall, close to that part of the world.

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Ashford

It was a bitterly cold mid-February morning as we drove along the A6 past the pretty Peak District village of Ashford in the Water looking for the nearby, roadside White Lodge car park a mile or so further along, set among trees that were dusted in white by the frost. The morning sun glinted on the River Wye alongside the road, and just a hint of mist hovered above the water.

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Dewsbury

Every walks column needs a gimmick, and I'm beginning to think I might have chanced upon one for this column: linking each outing to a culinary experience.

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Green Hammerton

12:30pm Monday 17th March 2008

How do you think up your walks?" That's what some people ask. And the answer is that more often than not you don't.

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Blackmoorfoot Reservoir

10:30am Monday 3rd March 2008

For a short walk, and ultimately a pleasant one, this caused us a few headaches - even before we got to the start.

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Pateley Bridge

10:30am Monday 18th February 2008

There's a special reason for driving to Pateley Bridge via Menwith Hill, Dacre Banks and Summerbridge (apart from the views as you drive up past Fewston, that is).

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Tormorden

10:50am Monday 4th February 2008

Todmorden is a sturdy Pennine town: not lovely, but interesting enough with its solid Victorian architecture and its valley-bottom mix of residential, industrial and commercial properties, its shops, pubs and cafes, it canal and railway and busy, busy A646 road.

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In the steps of the bringers of city's water

8:42am Monday 7th January 2008

Next time you turn on your tap and that wonderful, pure, sweet Bradford water pours out of it, drink deeply and let yourself be transported to the open skies and moorland of Nidderdale.

Otley

8:40am Monday 10th December 2007

The prospect of Wharfedale from Surprise View at Otley Chevin is breathtaking even on a misty morning.

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Bronte Waterfalls, Haworth

8:58am Monday 26th November 2007

There are footpaths galore around Haworth. Just when you think you might have walked them all, you can chance upon one you never knew was there. Or you can find yourself trekking along another that's obviously well trodden - but not, previously, by you.

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Haystacks, Buttermere

8:50am Monday 12th November 2007

The minibus in front of us pulled to the side of the road by the youth hostel at the top of Honister Pass and out of it tumbled a bunch of walkers, ready to set off for various high-level points.

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Latrigg & Castlerigg

8:50am Monday 29th October 2007

As fells go, Latrigg isn't a lot to write home about. In fact it isn't so much a fell as a grassy knoll compared to the big bruisers which flank it to the north of Keswick - Skiddaw to the west, Blencathra to the east.

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Calder Valley

9:10am Monday 15th October 2007

I've become an enthusiast for walking on former railway lines. It began a few years ago when I discovered the delights of the Spen Valley Greenway, the cycling, walking and horse-riding route created by the charity Sustrans to run from Oakenshaw southwards to Dewsbury.

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Aberford

8:20am Monday 1st October 2007

When we were children we were privileged to spend a week of each summer holiday (usually the last one) on a farm near the tiny village of Thorp Underwood, beside the River Ouse.

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Wetherby

4:10pm Monday 17th September 2007

Sustrans, which is already responsible for creating 10,000 miles of the National Cycle Network and is adding to that total all the time, deserves a big vote of thanks from walkers as well.

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Waterton Park

8:30am Monday 3rd September 2007

The cluster of lakes around Wintersett and Walton, south of Wakefield, have an established look about them.

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Cliffe Castle, Keighley

9:20am Monday 20th August 2007

With a couple of weeks of the long school holiday still to go, you just might be looking for places to visit to keep the children occupied.

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Fewston & Swinsty

8:20am Monday 6th August 2007

Yorkshire Water was recently urging people to use the land it owns and the facilities it provides around its reservoirs.

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Malham

9:30am Monday 23rd July 2007

Country walking isn't all about strolling along in a relaxed sort of way and admiring the scenery, you know. As in most other areas of life, there are important decisions to be made. Such as whether to proceed or go back when you come to a sign advising you that there are bulls and suckling cows with calves in the fields ahead.

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Barwick-in-Elmet

9:20am Monday 9th July 2007

The nice thing about walking across arable farmland is that you don't have to worry about cattle. What? You don't worry anyway? Well you should.

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Ilkley Moor

8:50am Monday 25th June 2007

The Wharfe valley was shrouded in mist as we pulled into the Cow & Calf car park before 9am on a spring day. Somewhere below us Ilkley was beginning to bustle. Nearby a cuckoo called. Above us the occasional patch of blue was visible in what was otherwise a solid cloud ceiling.

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Adel

8:20am Monday 11th June 2007

Adel and its near-neighbour Alwoodley are generally regarded as being in one of the posher parts of north Leeds.

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Keswick

4:30pm Friday 25th May 2007

You need a Plan B when you embark on a Lake District walking break. And a Plan C might come in handy too. The weather will decide for you.

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Askrigg

9:20am Monday 14th May 2007

The weather wasn't promising as we drove along Langstrothdale in light rain beside the briskly cascading baby River Wharfe and took the steeply-climbing Oughtershaw Road up towards Fleet Moss.

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River Nidd

8:50am Monday 30th April 2007

Why do some lambs form themselves into playful little gangs while others stick close to mother?

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Thirsk

4:20pm Friday 13th April 2007

The agricultural flatlands of North Yorkshire around Thirsk and Northallerton offer a contrast to the usual walking territory of people from this part of the world.

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Farnley

4:10pm Friday 30th March 2007

Suburbia has changed greatly. Old streets and lanes have vanished under new development. Open fields, too, have been lost beneath sprawling schools and factories.

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Elland

2:40pm Friday 16th March 2007

The young man was standing at the side of the path wearing headphones and pointing what looked like a television aerial up the field towards the wood. He scanned it around towards the valley bottom, where a flock of gulls was wheeling and calling.

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Lake Gormire, Sutton Bank

4:10pm Friday 2nd March 2007

Lake Gormire. The name itself has a magical, mythical quality. You can almost imagine Frodo Baggins chancing upon it in Lord of the Rings, with Gollum stalking along close behind.

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East Marton

3:20pm Friday 16th February 2007

Best-laid plans can often go startlingly awry in a winter when rain has fallen in abundance.

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Buck Wood

4:51pm Saturday 9th December 2006

What a difference it can make to a wood when a group of people befriend it.

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Marsden

11:10am Saturday 25th November 2006

An energetic walk can be a fine tonic.

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Monsal

3:20pm Saturday 11th November 2006

England's redundant railway lines would have made a marvellous, vast network of footpaths crisscrossing the land if so many of them hadn't been bulldozed away or built on. Some, at least in part, remain and have been successfully converted for use by walkers, cyclists and horseriders.

Yarnbury

10:50am Saturday 14th October 2006

The scream of a rabbit, that normally most silent of animals, in pain or terror is a sickening sound to come across in the apparent peace of the countryside.

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Harewood

5:50pm Saturday 16th September 2006

If the day looks like it's going to be hot, it's best to set off early. That had been the plan on the mid-July Sunday when we hoped to make a five-mile circuit of the Harewood estate.

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Otley Chevin

1:56pm Saturday 2nd September 2006

Whatever the weather might have been like since, the late-June Sunday on which we undertook this walk was very unseasonable.

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Pateley Bridge

2:30pm Saturday 5th August 2006

One of the main leisure activities of modern times, caravanning, rubs shoulders with the remains of industries of yesteryear in this very pleasant outing from Pateley Bridge, in the heart of beautiful Nidderdale.

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Dunstanburgh Castle

2:10pm Saturday 22nd July 2006

The northerly half of the Northumberland coast is a fair stride to travel for a day's walking, although once you reach the A1(M) it's little more than two hours away.

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Tong Park

2:20pm Saturday 8th July 2006

An interesting walk, this, passing high above the Aire Valley and then dropping down into the valley bottom, with some superb views and a close encounter with the popular village of Baildon.

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Edensor

4:30pm Saturday 24th June 2006

Place names which aren't pronounced as they're spelled can cause a problem for off-comed'uns. For instance, ask someone in the Bakewell area of Derbyshire if you're on the right path for Eden-sor and they'll probably grin and tell you they wouldn't know about that but they can show you the way to Enzor if you like.

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