Impressive sights to see along

THE LYDGATE TO HEBDEN BRIDGE HORSESHOE

Tback to Todmorden) GRADE - Easy - Only one climb at the beginning TERRAIN - Good tracks and paths where navigation is unproblematic MAP - South Pennines Outdoor Leisure 21 Lydgate is one mile outside Todmorden on the Burnley Road and it is an easy ‘warm up’ stroll along to the start or take the bus all the way. Enter the small lane after the Post Office which leaves Burnley Road near some cottages and a high pub sign, ‘The Poultry Dealers Arms’. At Lydgate primary school take a sharp right up the lane and past the houses. The track enters woods and crosses over the railway line which passes beneath the you through a tunnel way

below you. The track turns sharply left where you continue to gently climb, the long distance views improving all the while. Soon you will see Orchan rocks on the skyline ahead. At a gate, take the stile to the right and climb a field side by a wall which cuts off a corner. Rejoin the track and proceed to the rocks. After an essential exploration and photography break, continue ahead, level now and notice the Calderdale Way climbing up to Whirlaw Stones on the right and looming ahead, the interesting rock formations of Bride Stones Moor - this is where you are heading. Keep to the good track then a field ahead passing a conifer plantation on your left then turn left, over a cattle grid to reach a farm. Pass between the buildings and carry on up the concrete driveway to a stile on the right which takes you above the impressive rocks and moor edge. Take your time to explore here as some of the natural wind eroded standing stones are spectacular, Calderdale’s answer to the Easter Island heads. There is an Indian’s head, a dog and a bride with a fallen groom at her feet. One rock has an interesting inscription ‘A Coy 21st WR Bn Home Guard 1940 - 1944’. Also see the cup indentations in the flat rocks near the start of this path, hewn by human hands, relics of a bygone age. Walk along the length of the rocks always keeping to the path above and arrive at a trig point marking the highest point of Bride Stones Moor (438m). Continue along the path to reach Eastwood Road. Turn left for a few hundred metres then take the path on the right with a way marker. Cross over the main road, the Long Causway, and enter Dukes Cut track near to a large aerial. Walk along this good track and notice the spaceship like construction on Pole Hill. This is for airline pilot navigation purposes. Enjoy the feel of wilderness along here as the rolling long distance views and expanses of moorland are breath-taking. See all the large vernacular derelict farmhouses in the Noah valley below, long since abandoned for work in the factories of the Calder Valley. At a Y junction (marked ‘three gates end’ on the map) go through the gate on the left marked ‘No access for Motor Vehicles’. This is a pleasant and easy path enticing you towards the small tributary valley. Keep right at the bottom where you join a tarmac road skirting the valley side. Enter the charming hamlet of Rodmer Clough with renovated cottages surrounded by trees and dams. Continue along the road running parallel with the stream heading for a road bridge and an ivy clad mill chimney, still standing although the mill is a ruin. Do not cross the bridge but turn right following the Penning Bridleway by Land Farm with its magnificent gardens which are open to the public. Skirt the house around the back and leave the Pennine Bridleway shortly on a pathway straight ahead. Go through another stile and leave the woods behind, enter-