Shibden Valley

This walk explores the Shibden Valley, just over the hill from Halifax but feeling like a traditional south Pennines valley with cobbled paths, scattered houses and tiny but steep climbs. 

We start at Halifax station, plenty of parking around and even the odd train, walk past Halifax Minster, and climb the longest hill of the day. A little walk through some housing gets us out on a moorland track and we head towards a ski slope, a silk magnate’s mansion and the top of the valley before starting our return. 

In the last section we loop round Shibden Hall and Shibden Park and head up to Beacon Hill (which is now kitted out to be a Beacon but back in the day had a slightly more grisly function) before dropping back down to the town, past Eureka and ultimately Halifax station. 

It’s January, it’s Yorkshire, it’ll be muddy. The toilets at Shibden Park *might* be open but otherwise there are no such facilities on the route. Bring food and layers: we’ll eat somewhere nice but almost certainly cold. 

We’ll start at 1030, or whenever the 0957 from Leeds saunters in.