Living on the Edge

Jul 5 2008 by Sue Bardon, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

This circular walk in the Thornhill area of Kirklees just south of Dewsbury offers spectacular views at every turn.

Park at Edge Junction, Thornhill Edge (GR249181). Thornhill lies south of Dewsbury, and Thornhill Edge south of Thornhill.

Take the B6117 Thornhill road out of Dewsbury; shortly after passing Thornhill Parish Church on the right the road bears left; soon a signpost points right to Middlestown and Thornhill Edge (Smithy Brook Lane); soon another signpost points right to Thornhill Edge (Edge Road); follow Edge Road to its end at a T-junction (Edge Junction). Turn left and park immediately on the right.

Walk on in the same direction, keeping the houses on your left and the steep ridge of the Edge on your right.

In a few yards, keep left at the fork and at the end of the houses a stile on the left gives access to a ginnel, which drops to a road. Turn right along the road. At the T-junction, bear right and immediately at the next fork right again. You are now climbing gently parallel to the Edge over on your right.

At the summit of the road, before the farm, a footpath sign indicates a cross-path.

Here we join the Kirklees Way for a stretch. Cross the stile on the left and walk down the side of two fields to another stile in the wall ahead. Continue straight down the next field to another stile in a fenced gap in the hedge just before the beck.

Bear slightly right, keeping the beck on your left, to cross it by a new footbridge and enter the trees. Look for an old wall climbing through the wood and walk up to the right of it.

After you leave the trees, the wall brings you to a stile. Look back for the fine view of Thornhill Edge.

You are now in a walled lane. At a fork keep left, and at a crossing of tracks go straight on. Where the lane levels off, you will pass a lane-end on the right and Pudding Hill farm set back in its sheltering trees. At the next fork, bear right.

After passing several attractive houses (and ignoring a track on the left), you will reach a T-junction. Turn left for a few yards to find a stile on the right. Cross straight over the field and drop to a stile into the wood.

Cross the beck by the footbridge and bear right up the bank. Walk straight up to another stile and bear left to the road.

Cross the road to a stile and walk up the field with a wall and then a hedge on your right. In the top corner there is a stile which leads across a track to another stile.

Walk on with the wall and then a fence on your right (you will see the tower of Whitley Church straight ahead). Ignore a stile in the fence on your right and find another one in the bottom corner.

Over it, turn right along the field edge, and where the hedge ends walk straight on, crossing the field to a lane. Go straight ahead along the lane and at the main road pass through a stile on the left and walk down a causeyed path.

You will pass the spoil heaps of an old mine, cross the beck by a footbridge and climb to reach a stile giving access to a road. Walk straight up the road past Whitley Church.

At the main road turn left, then just past the Woolpack take Scopsley Lane on the right.

About 100 yards after the end of the houses bear right with the tarmacked road (an unsurfaced track leaves on the left). Where this road bends right at a cattle-grid keep straight on. Many causey stones survive along this path. There is a golf-course on your left and there are fine views over the Calder Valley.

The path, still causeyed, drops through a wood to a fork. Bear right. Again you have the views to the left. Ignore a fork left to a farm. You reach a tarmacked road at a sharp bend: bear left uphill. Soon the view opens out to the right. You are now on the top of the ridge of Thornhill Edge.

At a fork by a patch of grass with a bench keep right, along the Edge. Where the street ends, a paved path leads on. At the next street turn right for a yard or two, then cross the main road to a flight of steps leading down to the next road.

Cross this to a drive which leads to a panoramic footpath along the Edge. Keep at the same level – except at one point where, to avoid a landslip, a wall across the path indicates a slight detour up a few steps on the left, to be followed in a few yards by more steps leading back down to the old line of the path – until you are almost directly above your starting point, where a path leads steeply down to the car.

lWalkers are advised to carry with them the appropriate OS map for the area in which they are walking.