Wild Swimming Walks: Luddenden Dean and Midgeley Moor

Explore one of Calderdale’s most alluring vales before ascending to a pair of heather-fringed reservoirs with commanding views over the Luddenden Valley.

The secluded valley of Luddenden Dean is one of the prettiest in Calderdale, and a pleasure to explore. Tucked away between Halifax and bohemian Hebden Bridge, this peaceful, verdant backwater is characterised by rolling pastures and pockets of ancient woodland, cut through by the babbling Luddenden Brook. Luddenden means Ludd Valley, or Valley of the Loud Stream, a reference to the tumbling peat-stained stream that was once harnessed to power corn mills here (and, later worsted-producing ones).

The leafy vale is bound on either side by the dimpled landscapes of Warley and Midgley Moors. This circular walk explores the Dean along woodland trails and footpaths threading through the valley bottom, before ascending tracks and country lanes to the moorland tops and a pair of sparkling reservoirs as well as magnificent South Pennine views.

Starting out at the nature reserve and campsite of Jerusalem Farm, the walk leads through a wooden gate onto a grassy track, bound by a mossy stone wall and a jumble of beech, sycamore and holly trees, to Luddenden Brook and Wade Bridge. Just before the bridge, fern-fringed steps drop down to a riverside meadow dotted with picnic tables – and tents if the campsite is open – where a small waterfall flows into a peaty pool. You can take a dip before your hike or save it for your return. Keep an eye out for dippers, bobbing up and down on the rocks then plunging into the fast-flowing stream in search of small insects.

Across the bridge, several routes fan out into the woodland. Following the Calderdale Way, the path rises up and away from the brook through mature oak woodland. These delightful woods teem with life and birdsong. Tiny treecreepers and nuthatches search for insects to pluck from the bark of towering, twisted oaks while great spotted woodpeckers climb the trunks. They are not always easy to see but their loud drumming can quite clearly be heard. One of the first plants of the year to bloom here, in spring, is the splashy wood anemone, making the most of the light through the leafless woodland canopy. Drifts of bluebells follow, carpeting the woodland floor in a haze of deep violet-blue; their presence is a sign of a rare and special habitat.

Emerging into a glade, a wooden footbridge leads over a stream that trickles from a reed-choked mill pond. Instead of continuing through the woods, the path immediately rises up a wooded bank towards a stone step stile onto a country lane. Passing a terrace of stone cottages, the route then picks up a footpath curving around the slope of the hillside. In summer, this grassy bank is sprinkled with the crimson flower spikes of foxgloves, and hums with bumblebees, honeybees and moths. Ambling through this tranquil corner of Calderdale, it feels a million miles away from the urban bustle of Halifax, just a stone’s throw away.

With height gained, the views are ever-more expansive, fields and moor punctuated by a few scattered farms and cottages. At a stone bridge, the route again encounters Luddenden Brook, cascading over a series of stone slabs. If the prospect of refreshments appeals, the Cat I’th Well pub is just around the corner. Perched on the edge of moorland, the pub has an inviting beer terrace that overlooks the valley. Its name comes from a corruption of Catherine’s Well rather than anything to do with a poor kitty stuck in a well; there is a spring here, in a stone trough set into the wall of the lane opposite the pub.

If you have resisted the lure of the beer garden, continue along the route, ascending steps to follow a grassy footpath high above the brook, then deviating up through a sloping field.

A cobbled lane rises to the peaceful hamlet of Wainstalls; you can’t miss the curiously named Tongue End, a street name which may relate to its location at the end of a ‘tongue’ of land.

A cluster of traditional stone-built houses perch high on the hill here, surrounded by a mosaic of pastures, bounded by gritstone walls with splendid views over the Luddenden Valley towards Midgley Moor. Wainstalls was once home to Calvert’s Mills, a worsted spinning textile mill. The walk passes one of the 19th- century mill buildings, now converted into apartments. What a frenetic place it must have been in Victorian times, with the thunderous roar of machinery and stifling heat.