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| Run/Walk3: Norr Hill |
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seven miles |
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| From Bingley centre, go up Myrtle Place, past the swimming pool and into Myrtle Park. Go straight ahead and then keep bearing left until you meet the footbridge crossing the River Aire. Follow the path past the allotments till you reach Beckfoot Lane. Go left down Beckfoot Lane till you reach the main road. Head right for about two hundred metres and go up the steep Ghyll Wood Drive. At the top a section of unmade road leads to Manor Drive. Turn right as if heading into the forbidden delights of the Cottingley Wood Estate but just before the wrought iron gates and private signs, turn left into a rocky snicket that leads up onto Beckfield Road. After a few hundred metres a track leads off right into the estate. Follow this and veer left at the barbed wire bestrewn gate on the path round the back of the houses. The path leads to a broken down wall at the edge of the wood. Cross the wall and head across the field towards March Cote Farm. Cote originally meant a cottage. In the seventeenth century March was Marsh, and it's still� boggy.�� Just right of the farm is a stile in the wall. Go through the stile and then the field gate in front of you. Move diagonally across the field corner to another stile and into the wooded edge of the estate. Head left on the path that follows the wall round the edge of the wood. The path moves out of the wood up the side of a wall across fields to come out on Lee Lane by Coppice farm. Take the road past the bungalows of Moorview Drive for about 1500 metres until you meet a signposted track heading right. After the houses there is a stile into the fields. Keep to the left by the wall, through another stile until you climb up to the bridleway. Almost immediately take the gate on the left and climb steeply and briefly by the side of the wall. Follow the wall to the trig point on the flat top of Norr Hill. The derivation of the word Norr is obscure. North seems a possibility but A. H. Smith suggests it comes from the Middle English word knorre meaning the knotof a tree or a swelling. Now head diagonally across the field to the stile in the far right corner. Go across towards the next stile but don't cross the wall. Instead head down right towards a farm track that joins Shay Lane. Go down Shay Lane, heading right at the junction into Coplowe Lane. The lane takes its name from Coplowe Hill on the right.� Further down, this turns sharp right to become Cross Lane. Take the stile on the left. It's signposted but often obscured by trees. Cut across the field and through a stile, following the path to a gate with a stile. Turn left on the road and immediately take the stile on the right hand side. Follow the path round, crossing further stiles until you enter Ruin Bank Wood. Go through the wood meeting a track from the left |
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Along this track to the left is the St David's folly, built in 1796 as a decorative ruin by Benjamin Ferrand who was influenced by the Gothic an picturesque taste of the period. It was consciously landscaped to be perched romantically on the skyline when viewed from Harden Grange and predates the current afforestation |
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| The track is much frequented but not a right of way so bear right and then left down a rocky path that leads to a stile and fields. The grand house down in the valley on the left is Harden Grange, the original St Ives of the Ferrand family. The house was rebuilt in 1855. Keep to the right and take the stile that brings you onto the golf course. Follow the marked footpath down across the greens that takes you across Harden Beck by an old, narrow footbridge next to the converted Mill. Turn left up Beckfoot Lane and then right into the drive leading to Hesp Hills. Go to the left of the house and take the stile leading into the wood. Take the right hand fork of the path that leads you down to the tubular bridge over the river and into Myrtle Park. Go up the steps in front of you and follow the path that takes you out of the park where you started the route. |
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The track leading down to the golf course |
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Shay Lane and Wilsden from Norr Hill |
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Click the runner to return |
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