Walking the Meltham Way Circular Walk in Huddersfield from Blackmoorfoot Reservoir

The Meltham Way
 The village of Meltham lies on the South West of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. It Famously holds an annual 40's weekend with thousand turning up to take part. The 2016 event will be held on the 2nd and 3rd of July. See more at their website here melthammemories.co.uk

Circling around Meltham is an 8.5 mile walk, The Meltham Way. It is, in my opinion, one of Huddersfield's finest walks.

If you are planning to try this walk, it is possible to park your car on the roadside by Blackmoorfoot Reservoir. You can get here by bus from Huddersfield. It takes 28 minutes on Bus Number 393.
Or if you are training for the Yorkshire Three Peaks, You can walk up to the resrvoir from Milnsbridge, Paddock or Crossland Moor.
Coming at it from the West you will be close to the Wills'o'nats pub, well worth a call in afterwards, or alternatively, from the East or North take a look at grabbing a pint from the Bull's Head

The walk around Meltham is not signposted as the Meltham way, instead, there are arrows on small green plaques which say "Walk Meltham".

The terrain is often soft underfoot, and there are a lot of high stiles and walls to climb over. These are generally in good repair, but as always, please be careful. There is also a short ladder to climb.

You will be mostly walking on the flat, but the walk has aproximately 500' of elevation change over its length.

Expect the walk to take around 31/2 hours.

Starting from the access road on the East side of Blackmoorfoot reservoir, walk clockwise around the reservoir to half way along the South bank. You will see the start of the Meltham Conduit, a manmade feeder waterway for the reservoir.
Meltham Conduit
The entrance to the pathway is just to the left, and follows the banking along. At this end, the conduit is quite wide, and has some pretty bridges for the sheep to get from field to field, there may be trolls underneath, I didn't hang around to find out



In the distance, you can see West Nab, the prominant point on the skyline
 
This stretch along the conduit is about a mile and a bit.








It is relatively easy going between the 4' high walls, which have steps built into them to assist your climb.



Be careful, one of them has a long step down, and several cross onto roads which are fairly well used. The views are stunning though, so its worth taking your time.

 It can be a touch windy, there is not a lot to shelter you.

 Keep going until you come across an old set of lock gearing.



 Hard to miss. At this point you are going to change direction from generally SW to roughly SE, it is here that you will come across the ladder, and you cross the spillway.

This shows the spillway, and the ladder, its below the level of the land to the left, so you get a bit of shelter, an ideal spot for a drop of #yorkshiretea

Back to the conduit, and the locals are quite friendly
 
The conduit gets smaller and eventually fades to next to nothing, you cross a stile and are left wondering where to go next. At this point you are on a road/track turn right and walk uphill to see the steep sided valley of Royd Edge Clough.
Then turn left and walk down the side of the valley. If its Spring, as it was when I did this, there are some really good opportunities for Easter Photos of Daffodils with Meltham in the background.


 As you follow the path on a road, look out for a right hand turn which doubles back. The signs are there, but not easy to see. They get harder, there is a gate on the next corner, which gets hidden by parked cars. Make sure you go through this gate, then only a few yards further and you turn left in the valley bottom. You will believe that you have gone wrong as you go uphill along the path with overgrown tree roots and branches at head level, but its not for long and you get to a farm yard.

In this farm yard is an attack Turkey. I kid you not! For all the times you have had a Christmas dinner, this little bugger wants revenge! Maintain eye contact at all times, and don't stop until you are past. I turned to get this info from the farmer and the little sod had me! You have been warned.

Back to the walk, and across the Wilshaw Road you enter Meltham Gardens, which is a restful 5 minute stroll, sheltered and shaded, and no Turkey.












Out of the Gardens and the Meltham Way goes Right and Uphill towards Thick Hollins Park. Or, alternatively take a left and walk along the bottom side of Meltham Mills. This naughty little detour reduces the walk by about 40 minutes, and because its Easter Sunday, and I have family to visit, I'm taking the detour.

I rejoin the Meltham Way by taking the second public footpath on the right hand side of the main road and follow the walk meltham signs right back to Blackmoorfoot reservoir
and then to the start point




.....This is my fourth Sunday of getting up early and going out for a little walk. Today started at 5:30am at Marsh,
 
Walking past Royds Hall, down into Milnsbridge

 

I took the Right Fork in Milnsbridge to cross Manchester road and head up to Colne Valley High and then the reservoir.
At dawn, with the birds singing away you get some good views out over the valley

 
and pass the church in Linthwaite.

Just before the top of the hill is a great view of the Colne Valley
 
 
The total distance was about 15 miles. I am starting to feel a bit fitter, although today was very windy, which made walking tough.
Along the way I detoured to keep to my self imposed training schedule, which as far as possible I try and follow without compromising on family life.

The reason I started doing all this walking is to increase my fitness levels, and to reduce my Cholestrol, but in recent weeks I have been training harder than before as I will be attempting the Yorkshire 3 Peaks #Y3P in May. I have taken on the challenge to support the RMBI
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