If you fancy a walk using old lanes and field paths then this idyllic corner of the Pennines could fit the bill. You start your walk in the picnic area close to the corner of Scammonden Water, where you get the first taste of the delightful valley and excellent views which dominate this walk

PARK in Moselden picnic area on the B6114 Elland to Saddleworth Road close to the north-west corner of Scammonden Water, which it overlooks.

Return to the road and walk left along it. In a few yards take the lane on the right and at the next road turn left for 50 yards to another lane on the right (PF sign).

It leads down to a derelict farm, but a few yards before this cross a step-stile in the wall on the left, then another stile on the fence, and follow the path the left of the buildings.

It leads down with the beck on the left, over several stiles to a footbridge over Black Brook. Across it turn left, then right at the end of the birches up a fenced track, then left over the next stile.

Bear slightly right over the field to another stile, pass to the left of a ruined building and cross a gap-stile into a pasture.

The path contours round to a stile near holly bushes, then continues with a fence on the left. Cross the bottom of a walled lane and continue with the fence until a stile gives access to a farmroad. Turn left and follow it past the farm to a T-junction with another road.

Go left and at the mill at the bottom turn left between the buildings to cross a footbridge.

Take the stile on the right and follow the beck to another stile by a wall, then keep on with a wall on the right. Soon you are in an old lane which you follow to the next motor road.

Turn right down the hill towards another mill. Just past the house called Penny Hill, where the cobbled road bends right, cross a stile ahead by a gate.

Follow the path to another stile and continue straight on through another stile to pick up a wall on your left. Pass through a gap-stile into a lane which leads behind a derelict farm and follow the track to a tarmacked toad.

Walk straight down it, ignoring a cobbled lane to the left, and at the paper mill turn left between the buildings, keeping the beck to your right, and at the far end of the next mill. continue on its access road.

Opposite the end of the next mill, a few yards before the main road, there is on the left a short piece of lane leading to a gate.

The line of the old lane ahead is marked by the holly and hawthorn trees, bear left with them some way up the hill to a stile at a road.

Turn right, pass some houses and follow the walled track (the fine 17th-century house over to the right is Barkisland Hall).

The track becomes tree-lined and starts to climb. At the garden wall of a large house turn left through a stile along it. Cross the stile in the field corner, and the beck, and keep on to pick up a wall to your right which you follow to the next stile in the corner (fine views back left), then bear right slightly left towards the chimneys of the next farm.

The track leads between the barn on the left and the architecturally very fine farmhouse on the right.

Turn right along the lane. At the next macadamed road go right, but in anther 50 yards at the fork take the walled lane ascending left.

At the top keep straight on to the road junction, turn left for a few yards, then right at the fork.

This road has spectacular views of the valley of Black Brook. When you reach the main road at a T-junction go left along it, but where it turns sharp right take the right-hand of two minor roads straight ahead.

Follow this, ignoring other roads to left or right, until you enter a no-through road and eventually reach just beyond some houses on the right the lane you used at the start of the walk.

Go up it, and at the top of the car-park is a few yards left.

We recommend that you take the appropriate OS map.