Captain's Log

Penistone Line Trails

I almost didn’t set off on today’s walk. Last night, the  BBC Weather app predicted all day sunshine for today. I looked at the app again this morning and the forecast had changed to showers until lunch time. How frustrating! Looking out my bedroom window, the clouds looked golden from the sunrise. I decided to take a punt on the weather and go.    

Today’s walk would be from a base along the Penistone Line. There are a number of published walks along this regional railway route that connects Huddersfield and Barnsley, and today's walk was one of them. By hopping on and off the train it's possible to carry linear walks which makes quite a pleasant change from the circular ones. The walk today was known as the Berry-Den walk by the Denby Dale Walkers and would be a 9.5 mile romp southeastwards  across the hills from the railway stations of Berry Brow, near Huddersfield, to Denby Dale. By the time I stepped off the train onto the platform at Berry Brow, the sky looked distinctly greyer. A storm looked like it was approaching. 

Berry Brow

It wasn’t a particularly interesting start to the walk. The railway station was positioned within a housing estate and I made my way to the busy Newsome Road South. I followed its gradual gradient uphill. The open landscape to the east looked promising and I could see the distinctive Victoria Tower perched on the top of Castle Hill. I needed to make my way up to that somehow. Eventually I found a footpath heading away from the road in the direction of the hill. The walk became very pleasant once I was away from the traffic. I continued a gradual ascent of the hill and fine views started opening up to the west. Even though the sun was out, there was a fine drizzle in the air. Further over towards the Pennines in the west, the clouds looked menacing and I could see a veil of rain approaching. A rainbow suddenly appeared and just as quickly vanished. The terrain got steeper as I got closer to the top of Tower Hill. Perhaps not surprisingly the top of the hill was the location of an Iron Age fort that dated back over 4,000 years. The top of the hill is 350m above sea level and it felt like it as I climbed the long stone staircase to the top. The surrounding vegetation was charred black from a wildfire. I guess somebody had thought it would be a good idea to light a fire in such a prominent location. 

Victoria Tower

The Victoria Tower is 32.3m high and was opened on the 24th of June 1899 by the Earl of Scarborough, watched by a crowd of about 20,000 people. It was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It certainly was a very impressive stone tower. It was at a stunning location too with a bird’s eye view towards the Pennines and northwards to the urban sprawl of Huddersfield. I walked up the steps to the front door, but it was locked. Apparently they do open it to the public occasionally so that you can climb the staircase to the viewing gallery on the top. Back in 1899 when the tower was opened, a choir of 49 local singers sang from the top of the tower to commemorate the occasion. The wind was so strong that none of the 20,000 crowd below could hear them. That’s Yorkshire for you!  The area on top doesn’t look that big and so it must have been a bit dodgy up there with 49 people. Initially it didn’t have any safety fencing either. Maybe that affected their singing. On the 14th of November 1899, Mr Edgar North fell from the top of the turret. Suicide was a possibility, but an investigation revealed that prior to making the ascent he’d been drinking five ‘three penny-specials’ at the Castle Hill Hotel. Each ‘special’ included two beers and three whiskies. I guess the real mystery was how he ever managed to crawl to the top. After his death, a fence was erected around the top. 

Farnley

The height I gained climbing Castle Hill was soon lost as I dropped down its east side. It turned out to be a lovely little valley formed of fields and ancient woodland. I passed an old house that had a row of windows on  its east facing upper floor. It must have been an old mill house. In those days they constructed as many windows as possible to let as much light as they could into the works inside. These houses must feel very bright and airy to the residents today. I traversed the bottom of the valley that consisted of a wonderful woodland trail and climbed through fields on the other side. Looking back, I had a great view of Victoria Tower on Castle Hill. 

The route took me into the small village of Farnley Tyas. There were some more old mill houses with their abundant windows. Some new-builds were being constructed and it looked like they were incorporating this multi-window design into these houses too. I walked past the church into the fields beyond and was hit by the first serious rain of the day. I put my anorak on. 

Thurstonland

Despite the weather, there were still cracking views on offer. Over to the east, the top of Emley Moor’s mast kept disappearing and then re-appearing in the ceiling of the cloud. The best views were over to the west and across the multiple valleys. The bottom of the valleys and some of the hillsides were quite urbanised, but there was still enough greenery remaining to make it pretty.   

A runner passed me and then stopped for a chat. He looked to be in his fifties and he told me he’d been an ultra-runner.
‘What’s the longest race you’ve done?’ I asked.
‘That was a 100K race’ he replied. ‘I’ve done the Bob Graham Round as well.’
‘Crikey, well done! What time did you do it in?’
‘22 hours 30 minutes’ he responded. ‘I did it anti-clockwise, rather than the normal clockwise.’ He used to live in Keswick, but had  moved down to Yorkshire. I told him about my current half-completed Venture (see Bob Graham Round) to walk the circuit. He wished me luck in finishing it.    

The drizzle had turned to light rain by the time I reached the village of Thurstonland. A builder who was walking from his van to a house asked me where I was walking. I told him that I was heading from Berry Brow to Denby Dale. He wrinkled his nose when I mentioned Berry Brow. He obviously wasn’t impressed with the place.
‘It’s quite pretty once you leave Berry Brow’ he told me. I agreed that the countryside was more picturesque than I expected. I told him that I was planning to walk other routes along the Penistone Line. I told him where I lived. He wrinkled his nose again without saying anything.
‘Enjoy your walk’ he offered.
‘Enjoy your work,’ I replied. 

Fulstone

I dropped down into a valley again. There certainly was a lot of up-and-down on today’s walk. The path climbed to the houses on the top of the hill at Fulstone. On the way I came across the residence of Elvis and Boris. One of them came out to greet me, but I’m not sure whether it was Boris or Elvis. The path then got up close and personal with some of the houses and I couldn’t avoid looking straight into somebody’s living room. Daytime TV looked like it was showing the usual rubbish. Beyond the village, I continued southwestwards, crossing the busy A635. There were more undulations to navigate before I reached a high point at Haddingley. My watch then informed me that the rest of my walk would be a gradual descent all the way to Denby Dale. It was true to its word.

Denby Dale

It was definitely a gradual descent. I followed roads and then a stone track. I crossed the A629 at Park Head and continued the descent eastwards. The route touched the southern edge of Upper Cumberworth before heading off into a delightful woodland area, full of old trees, brooks, ponds, stepping stones and a rare ant hill (keep your dogs on leads!). It was Squirrel City too. I was a little bit sad when I left the wood and reached the A635, which I followed using the pavement. The magnificent Denby Dale viaduct came into view and I timed it just right to see a train traversing it. I have to confess that I became a little bit disorientated at this point. I’d left Berry Brow on the east side of the railway line and headed southeast. Therefore I fully expected to approach Denby Dale railway station on its north and east side, since I’d seemingly not crossed the railway line on my walk. As I approached the viaduct, I had the impression that I was approaching it from the southwest (which turned out to be correct). I’d navigated this walk using my watch and so didn’t have an accurate mental picture of the walk. Unbeknown to me, I’d crossed over the railway line at Thurstonland Tunnel. How confusing! At least my watch knew where I should be going and so I followed its advice and dropped down onto a pathway that ran along the base of the viaduct. It certainly looked impressive from below. I climbed up the other side of the valley. I felt even more disorientated when I started walking along the path to the station that was totally unfamiliar to me. It was disorientating since I’d walked from this very same railway station only 3 days ago (see Pen-Den Trail Perusal). The station had, of course, two entrances. I used the northern entrance 3 days ago, even though I was heading south. Today, I was entering its southern entrance, even though I’d walked from the north.  Next time, I think I’ll bring a paper map as well so that I can eliminate such confusion. I couldn’t fault my Suunto Vertical watch with its navigation today though. It had been invaluable on the convoluted route. 

The route had been another excellent walk using the Penistone Line. The landscape was surprisingly picturesque. Victoria Tower was spectacular with incredible views over towards the Pennines and the urban sprawl of West Yorkshire. There had been no livestock in any of the fields which had been a plus. The paths had been generally good although signage had been absent in a few places. The walk certainly inspired me to organise another one along the Penistone Line. I might even make a Venture out of the collection of walks.