(S/E) From the garden of the Shibden Mill Inn, turn right through the car park out to Blake Hill road, and turn left. Bear left at the bottom of Whiskers Lane, then turn right into Simm Carr Lane by the bridge.
(1) Just before Simm Carr Farm, turn right onto a footpath with a Calderdale Way waymark. Turn left over a stile to cross a field diagonally to another stile in the far corner, then walk uphill along the field edge, which develops into a slabbed path.
(2) At the top, turn right along a walled path and walk through Addersgate Farm. Exit via the entrance track and pass a couple more properties until you reach a road.
Turn left and follow the road for 1⁄4 mile, passing a farm on your right (Lower Northroyd) and Upper Northroyd Farm on your left.
Shortly after a long low bungalow, turn left by a field gate on a bend and cross a stile by a second gate. Follow the wall beyond.
(3) Unexpectedly, the path drops into a short narrow tunnel under a heap of quarry spoil. (For the 2-mile walk, turn left on exiting the tunnel, follow the obvious descending path and jump to step 7).
To continue with the longer walk, take a few steps to the right, then take a narrow path on the opposite side of the track. The path may be slightly overgrown and indistinct at first; keep close to the wall on your right to pass a crossing wall under a holly tree, beyond which a clear path leads pleasantly along the edge of the dale, still keeping close to the field boundary on your right.
(4) Beyond some farm buildings away to your right, cross an open field under power lines to a gateway.
Head for the far left-hand corner of the next field, to pick up a descending path that leads over a small stream and past a waymark post before descending to a footbridge.
Climb the steep bank on the other side of the stream, then skirt below the tall cypress hedges of a property before climbing to the unsurfaced entrance drive.
Cross the drive and follow a walled path below gardens, ignoring a turning to the right. Exit over some grassed-over spoil-heaps into a narrow lane below a high retaining wall.
(5) Follow the road left (Long Lane), then turn left into a farm drive signposted “Hanging Royd”. Before the farm, swing right and follow a stony zig-zag path down to a pumping station. Follow the road beyond and turn left at a T-junction.
After entering woodland, and by the remains of a building, take a sharp left turn before a gate, onto a stony footpath that descends steeply through woodland.
(6) On reaching an open area, turn right and then left before a pond, between two old gateposts, and descend to a footbridge. Follow the path up the other side; at a stone post take the upper (left-hand) path.
(7) On meeting a track, turn right. Pass behind a stone farmhouse on your right then shortly afterward turn right to meet a drive that leads past a second farmhouse.
(1) Follow the road beyond to the bottom of the valley, where it swings left. At the bridge at the bottom of Lee Lane, keep straight on to return to the Shibden Mill Inn. (S/E)
