Jumble Hole and Colden Clough

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Our view

"Textile history from cottage industry to the mills of bustling Hebden Bridge."

Walk directions

Begin along Holme Street, off the main A646 just east of the bridge, to the Rochdale Canal. Go right to follow the tow path beneath two bridges, past the Stubbing Wharf pub and beneath a railway bridge. Carry on for another 0.75 miles (1.2km) before turning off before the next bridge to follow a track to reach the A646.

Cross the road and turn right for 75yds (69m) to take Underbank Avenue, on the left. Walk beneath the railway and go left again, past houses, to where another road comes through the viaduct. Go sharp right on a track past a mill, and follow the beck up into the woodland of Jumble Hole Clough. Where the track later swings sharp right, leave across a stone bridge onto a track rising steeply through a hairpin. Higher up as it wheels left, take the narrow path ahead to continue above the beck. Ignore a later intersecting path and climb beyond to a stile. Join another path down to Staups Mill. The climb resumes beside the ruin to reach a footbridge. Scale the opposite bank and go left in front of a signpost by a gap in a wall to come out at Hippins.

Join the Calderdale Way, turning right up a track between farm buildings to a stile. Follow a path to the next stile and on beside a wall. Cross a track at Apple Tree Farm and continue over a couple of stiles on a causeway to a row of cottages. Pass the end of the terrace, crossing more stiles and a rough pasture to a kissing gate. Follow the onward causeway to a farm, there following a track out to the lane at Blackshaw Head.

Cross to a small gate almost opposite and bear half right across the field to a stile, then follow the right edge of the next field. Continue on a diagonal line across successive fields, eventually reaching a walled track. Walk down to Shaw Bottom and bear left beside the house to a junction.

The New Delight Inn is to the left, but the route lies to the right, the way degrading to a stony track. After 200yds (183m), bear left beside a waypost on a stepped path dropping steeply to cross Colden Water. Take the rising path, but then keep right higher up to follow a stone causeway along the valley side above the trees. Carry on as you later break out into a field. Over a stile at the far corner, ignore the adjacent gate and swing around the wall corner to pick up the continuing flagged path. Eventually meeting a rising track, go left to a junction and turn right on a tarmac drive. Bear off left behind a cottage, the causeway resuming over a stile beyond. Shortly meeting an intersecting track, go right and follow it out to a lane.

Walk up the hill, leaving just before a bend through a gap in the right-hand wall. From here, your path meanders through woodland (it’s a bit of a scramble in places). Emerging from the trees, continue above the edge to Hell Hole Rocks. Turn away from the viewpoint along a walled path between gardens. Cross a street to the ongoing path, which shortly meets a track behind houses.

Go right, emerging opposite the Social and Bowling Club. Turn right on a contained path. As the ground falls away, curve left by the boundary, eventually dropping through a wall onto a crossing path. Walk left to meet a track and go right to a junction. Bear left along the lower, main road, doubling sharply right after 50yds (46m) onto the Buttress, an old packhorse trail that drops steeply back to Hebden Bridge.

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Location

Nearest postcode:

Additional information

Terrain - Good paths, many stiles

Landscape - Steep-sided valleys, fields and woodland

Dog friendliness - Keep on lead near livestock and roads

Parking - Pay-and-display car parks in Hebden Bridge

Toilets en route - Hebden Bridge and Townfield Lane, Heptonstall

Walks in West Yorkshire Dog-friendly walks in West Yorkshire

About the walk

This walk links the little town of Hebden Bridge with the old hand-weaving village of Heptonstall, using sections of a waymarked walk, the Calderdale Way. The hill village of Heptonstall was, in its time, an important centre of the textile trade and at the hub of a complex network of old trackways,...

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Been on this walk?

Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.

Find out more

Walking in Safety

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

Learn more

Get an AA guide

Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.

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About the area

Everybody knows that Yorkshire has some special landscapes. The Dales and the Moors first spring to mind, but what about West Yorkshire? That’s Leeds and Bradford isn’t it? Back-to-back houses and blackened mills… Certainly if you had stood on any of the hills surrounding Hebden Bridge a hundred years ago, and gazed down into the valley, all you would have seen was the pall of smoke issuing from the chimneys of 33 textile mills.