Hike File

Distance: 28 km – Climb: – Time: (excluding breaks)

Start: Diggle, Saddleworth, Diggle Hotel 

Finish:

Start: Diggle, Saddleworth, Diggle Hotel 

• Barges were legged through the canal tunnel to Marsden. This meant men would lie on their backs on the barges and effectively walk along the roof of the tunnel. The ‘Boat Lane’ was used to get the horses to Marsden.

Take the ‘Boat Lane’ from behind the pub, going NE up the hill. We are still on the Oldham way and it is well marked upto the farm at Diggle Edge and onto the moor. Note the tunnel spoil heaps, now largely overgrown, on your left as you climb and the occasional circular brick built ventilation shaft.

The ascent for the day is complete (Yippee!) when we reach the Brun Clough Reservoir and meet the A62 Oldham to Huddersfield road.

From here to the M62 we are in the short space between sheets 1 and 21 of the Outdoor Leisure Series 1:25,000. You need both the sheets 109 and 110 of the 1:50,000 series to fill this gap. The way is fairly well marked with stone cairns, but I recommend you use the maps in the National Trail Guide Book 5 for this section.

• 1.6 km A62 Standedge Cutting – - Cross the road and go NE up the road 200m and you meet the Pennine Way again. Take track running west for 300m. Climb a wooden stile on your right and you are back unto the open moor.

Follow the path marked with cairns along the moor edge for one kilometre to a trig point at 448m altitude. Just a few metres beyond this, cemented onto a rock facing SW, is a plaque to commemorate Ammon Wrigley, a local poet whose ashes are scattered here.

After a further 1.5 km the path splits. The Oldham Way goes west, but we take the gravelled Pennine way going north. This curves round gradually to the NE and reaches the A640 in another 1.5 km. Note the old packhorse track from Marsden also joins us here, from the east.

• 5 km A640 - – Cross the road and follow path marked with cairns NW over a slight rise. After 1000m we cross a stream and then climb for another 500m to the trig point on White Hill (altitude 466m). From here we go 500m west and then turn north. The path on this stretch is not well marked so note this turn carefully if the mist is down. Another kilometre brings us to the A672. Cross by a lay-by where a van serves hot drinks and snacks. Continue north to the right of the radio mast at Windy Hill. After just 500m the peace and quiet of the moor is suddenly destroyed by the roar of the M62 motorway.

9 km M62 Motorway

• The motorway passes through a deep cutting here so it is not until we stand on its rim that we are aware of the thunder of the trans-pennine traffic. We cross the cutting via a 150 m span foot bridge, built especially to carry the Pennine Way. Stand in the middle of the footbridge and pity the poor commuters and freight drivers passing beneath. You can see their faces behind the wheel mesmerised by speed.

Hurry over the bridge to get away from the noise. The path goes west for 300 m before turning NW onto the moor. Note the strange steel circle and wooden cross on the edge of the cutting put here I presume as a guide to the motorway builders. The way gets a bit boggy in area of redmires, but fortunately the worst bits are paved. Wooden posts join the occasional cairn to mark the climb upto the trig point (alt 472 m) on Blackstone edge.

• 11 km Blackstone Edge – - The white trig point stands on the top of one of the huge black boulders that form the edge. We follow the edge north for one kilometre to the Old Pack Horse Road.
• 12 km Aigin Stone – - A small standing stone marks the point were the way joins the pack horse road. Turn west and follow this track downhill. The paved section of this ancient road was once thought to be Roman, but is now thought to be more recent. After 400m we cross a waterworks channel that carries water to Blackstone Edge Reservoir. We follow this north for 800m to a quarry then left down to the A58. Turn right up the road and in 100m we reach the White House pub.
  • ‘The White House’ – 14 km – The welcome pub on the A58 serves good food and drink but has no accommodation. The nearest pub accommodation is at ‘The Huntsman’, at village of Summit, near Littleborough, a further 2.5 km in the valley bottom.

Accommodation Littleborough

The Huntsman – Grid ref: SD 947188 Tel: 0706 378009 Accommodation: 1T 3S Price per person B&B: £15.00 /£14.00 sharing. Transport: British Rail: 3 km Littleborough station

14 km ‘The White House’

• We follow the Pennine Way by continuing up the road another 100m to the foot of Blackstone Edge Reservoir. We cross the dam of Blackstone Edge Reservoir
  • The next 7 km the way is dead level. Good for fast walking or long talking. Watch out for curlews nesting on the moors and good views in the Rochdale Todmorden valley blow you to the west. This pass is the lowest crossing from Lancashire to Yorkshire and boasts a good transpennine links by road, rail and canal.
  • Follow the head drain to White Holme Reservoir and then along the dam of Warland Reservoir.
• 19 km Far end of Warland Reservoir – - Follow the drain 300 m north, then 600m east, then 500m north east, to where the drain doubles back south.
• 20.5 km Far end of Warland Drain – - we continue north over a section of the way that is well maintained. After 500m we pass a cairn on Coldwell Hill and we start a to descend. Good views open to the north and west of Todmorden and you should see Lumbutts Water Wheel Tower below you. After a 300 m the path turns west along the rim of the moor for 300 m.
• 22 km Withens Gate – - Here our way is crossed by the Calderdale Way which runs from west to east. Near by a tall white stone marked with a cross probably marks the ancient way from Todmorden to Cragg Vale.

For the youth hostel, turn west here and descend to Mankinholes in 1.2 km.

• We continue north east, climbing at first over an uneven track for 1.5 km to Stoodley Pike.

Accommodation Mankinholes, near Todmorden

Mankinholes YHA – grid ref: SD 960235 Tel: 01706 812340 Accommodation: 40 Beds Price per person B&B: £9.25

23.5 km Stoodley Pike

•  Leave the pike by descending the track to the east. In 500m pass through a stile, turn north and climb imediately over another stile and continue to descend for a further 500m to Swillington. Here we turn north west through a gate and across pasture for 400m until a stile on our right. Although this is not marked climb the stile and take the diagonal path north across a field until we meet a wall. Follow the wall north east to Rough Head Farm where it becomes a proper road. This road swings slowly north down a very green and wooded clough called Callis Wood.
• 26 km Callis Wood – - Look out for a bridleway sign on your right, just 300m after you start the wooded section of the clough. This takes us across the clough where it is still not to deep and wide. Descend 50m almost south to a bridge over the stream and turn north again onto the east rim of the clough. The path becomes a track and finally a metalled road running steeply down the hill into the centre of Hebden Bridge.
• At the bottom of the road from Callis Wood, turn first left then right onto the main A646 road. After 300m turn left at the turist office and at the top of that street is the White Lion.
• Finish: 28 km Hebden Bridge White Lion